#Percy knows what it���s like to be the ‘troubled kid’

[asvterias]

𝖢𝗁𝖺𝗉𝗍𝖾𝗋 𝟣: 𝖦𝗈𝗈𝖽𝖻𝗒𝖾, 𝖸𝖺𝗇𝖼𝗒 𝖠𝖼𝖺𝖽𝖾𝗆𝗒

the cast // series masterlist

chap. 1 || chap. 2 || chap. 3 || chap. 4 || chap. 5 || chap. 6 || chap. 7 || chap. 8

‼️  DISCLAIMER FOR THIS CHAPTER  ‼️ 

Just Some Cursing

Bold Italics are the Flashbacks

Bold Italics with the ‘Single Quotation Marks’ are spoken in 1st POV

word count: 4.5k+

tag list: @starvviss @lov3rgirllll @starless-nightz @random-girls-loves

author’s note: so...first chapter, how are we looking?? 👀 Also, there’s no way for me to be this consistent with my book 😮, let’s hope i can keep this up!

🌊 🐚 ✘ 🔥🗡️

CHAPTER 1, EPISODE ONE

✧.* ࿐ CHAPTER 1’S MIXTAPE ! ꩜ ·˚ ༘₊· ✿ ೀ ➳

001, IT GIRL . . . aliyah’s interlude

002, SWEET ESCAPE . . . gwen stefani & akon

003, WE R WHO WE R . . . kesha

004, PARADISE . . . coldplay

Born from the same father but different mothers, your sibling bond with Percy was unbreakable, certainly unconditional. Your mothers were very close, growing up as best friends from when they were teenagers, accomplishing every achievement together for the sake of you and Percy’s life.

Of course, your moms fell in love, hosting a small spring wedding when you were 10 and Percy was 6 years old.

‘Look…. I didn’t want to be a half-blood. Being a half-blood is dangerous, it’s scary. Most of the time it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways. If you think you might be one of us, my advice is to turn away while you still can because once they know who you are, they’ll sense it too and they’ll come for you. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.’

‘My name is Y/N Jackson-Matthews, I’m sixteen years old. Am I a troubled kid? Depends on which context you put this in.’

‘To my parents, I’m the easy and less rebellious child, never causing fights unless provoked, maintaining good school grades, and protecting my brother from trouble. I didn’t mind any of it, rather enjoying being the protector of the family. It makes me visible and seen as an equal to my other family members. Don’t get my parents wrong, they love and care for me very much, but I always felt invisible, blending into the sidelines, due to my shy nature. Luckily, I’m still growing out of that mindset and managing to be an outspoken girl and not a pushover.’

‘So what happens when the protector is unable to protect? Do they give up instant hope and cower in shame? Or do they fight back, willingly seeking a second chance to redeem themselves? The answer to this question is unclear. Whether you make a change or just bystand like others?

With everything going on, from the upbringing of your heritage, both of your mothers went through thick and thin. Developing from friends into lovers hardly changed anything, presumably their love maintained massively for themselves and shared children. A loving family of four was maintained by dark secrets that cost lives.

After many years of moving from states because of unexplainable sightings you and Percy witnessed in confusion and never properly settling down in schools, Yancy Academy was persistent. You and Percy managed a full school semester at Yancy, and your parents were proud of it.

Everything was going well, Percy finally found a friend, Grover Underwood, the boy was a little peculiar but his personality was a sweet innocent one. Yes, you didn’t have any friends but you were fine with it, half of your schoolmates weren’t even worth the time. So, you just hung out with Grover and Percy, defending them against bullies, particularly a redhead named Nancy Bobofit, who was your classmate.

Despite the girl bullying your younger brothers, she never bothered you to the extent she did with others. You shared most of your classes with her, due to being assigned to AP Classes because of your academic gift. Perhaps, maybe she’s always flustered by your mere presence, her rosy cheeks, giving her true feelings away. Even when it’s with a single glance from you, the redhead girl would duck her head and turn the small smile she had on, plastering it with a hardened frown.

‘Until the day that changed, too…until the day one of them decided to come for me and my brother too. My family’s fate will all be in my hands. And maybe I wasn’t prepared for it, nobody was prepared for it. I’m a protector and nothing we hate worse is an unprepared attack.

Yancy Academy hosted a field trip to the Met Museum about Greek Gods for History Week. Standing beside your younger brothers, Grover and Percy, observing about the many Greek God statues on display while Mr. Brunner briefly discussed Greek History.

Keeping a clipboard in your hand with a worksheet attached to it and you fidgeted with the pen in your other hand. You couldn’t concentrate on anything.

“What you see here, they are not fictions. They are not fantasies. What you see here are the truest and deepest parts of yourselves. Friends…the gods, the monsters, the heroes, you see here in this room are reminders of what we are capable of.” Mr. Brunner explained to the students.

You released a tired sigh, throwing your head slightly back as you resisted the urge to roll your eyes and leave to buy snacks.

Greek Mythology wasn’t your favorite thing to learn about but surprisingly your brother, it’s the only subject he wholeheartedly admires.

“Now, on your worksheets, I want you to choose one of the subjects you see here and describe it. Not just how it looks but how it makes you feel. Hmm…okay, c’mon.” Your History teacher claps twice, urging everyone to disperse and start the assignment.

You blinked down at the clipboard holding your assignment, trying to read the instructions. Your vision goes blurry as you squint your eyes, not believing the sight. Were you seeing things now? Since when do words start to rearrange themselves on paper? That whole ordeal caused even more confusion and an even further increasing headache.

Suddenly, you feel a tap on your shoulder which brings you back to reality as you turn around to face the person. You shake your head, realizing you are in a public place and daydreaming again.

“Hey, Matthews,” Nancy smirks.

“Hey, Bobofit.” Your eyes slanted at the girl’s presence, wondering why the sudden intrusion.

“I was wondering if you had another pen that I could borrow. I seem to have lost mine,”

You nodded with a small smile, about to grab the extra pen from your sweater pocket before your brother joined in the conversation.

“Isn’t that the pen behind your ear?” Percy points out.

You raised your head and scanned the girl’s face as her red hair made it harder to decipher the pen. Nancy’s face flushed in embarrassment as her eyes widened at the blonde’s attempt at humiliation. The redhead absolutely hated that he succeeded in embarrassing her, and in front of you, too. Finally, you spotted the well-hidden pen, observing the writing utensil, safely tucked behind the bridge of her ear.

“Oh yeah, you do have a pen. You don’t need mine.”

Your brother smiles in satisfaction at Nancy’s embarrassment and your cluelessness in the entire situation.

“Yeah, so can you get lost now?” Percy says with a disdained face.

Nancy glares and scoffs at your blonde brother before turning her attention back to you with a half smile. “See you later, Y/N,” she waved with a flirty tone.

You nodded, watching the redhead saunter off to her friend group once again.

“I still don’t get why you even interact with her,” Percy exhales.

“Trust me, I don’t know myself.” You answer him, “Maybe, I want to kill her with kindness,” You joked with a dry tone.

“My sister is always the jester,” Percy rolls his eyes.

“Shut up, doofus,” You shove him. “Let’s hurry up and finish this worksheet so we can buy snacks, I’m starving.”

“I swear you think through your stomach,”

“Whatever, Perseus.”

You two chuckle to yourselves as you both look up at the statue in front of you. It was Perseus, standing victoriously while holding the decapitated head of Medusa.

“What do you see?”

The whole scenery changed, and instead of the museum being crowded it was empty, just the family of four. You, Percy, your mom, Jessica, and your mother, Sally. However, your ages also regressed there too, you were 10 and Percy was 6 as you all stood before the statue. It was a past memory.

“Perseus…that’s me.” A six-year-old Percy answered his mom.

“Mm-hmm, that’s who you’re named after.”

“Is that why you named me after him? Because he was a hero?”

“What makes you think he was a hero?”

“Because he kills monsters.”

“And what makes you think that she was a monster?”

“Mom…”

“Not everyone who looks like a hero is a hero, and not everyone who looks like a monster is a monster.” Your mom, Jessica continues with the conversation.

“This Greek talk is sooo boring,” You mumbled to yourself.

“I named you after him because when he was a very little boy he and his mother were placed in a wooden chest and cast out into the sea by a very angry king.”

Your mom looked at her two children as she spoke, “All alone, afraid, and at night, his mother would whisper in his ear; “Hold fast Perseus. Brave the storm that was made to break us for we are unbreakable as long as we have each other.”

“And against all odds, he managed his way to find a happy ending,” Sally concludes.

You and your mom shared a glance of boredom as she grabbed your hand, sneakily walking away from your brother and mother. You two left the museum and headed towards the food stand outside, ordering two medium-sized pretzels.

“We got pretzels,” You cheered, chewing on the pretzel in your hand as you skipped back inside the museum with your mom.

“And you didn’t bring me any!” Percy yelled in astonishment.

“Why yes, of course, because you and mother were boring me and mom about all this Greek mythology.”

“It’s not my fault your attention span is so short!”

“Oh, like you’re one to talk, Perseus!”

“Just shut up, Y/N/N.”

Before you two could argue again, your mom hit your arm, silencing any of your upcoming words, and replacing it with a hurried yell. Soothing your arm in pain as the impact still subsided, and you pouted at your mom.

“In public places, we use our inside voices, remember.” Sally gently reprimands her two children.

“But—“

Her warning tone was to be carefully treaded with. “Y/N…”

“Why didn’t Percy get hit too?”

“Don’t take that tone with your mother, missy,” Your mom lectures you with a firm stare. “Don’t make me get the belt.”

Neither of your parents were wearing belts and you wondered where she was gonna find one. For once, you decided to keep your smart mouth shut and avoid the consequences this time.

“Fine, we’ll be even.” Sally sighs, briefly hitting Percy’s arm harshly, wincing when his eyes start to water.

“Sorry, mom.” You held your head down in shame and bashfully took another bite of your pretzel.

He cries and you walk over to him, rubbing his back with your free hand, attempting to comfort him. Soon enough, you soothed and wiped his tears away and gave him a huge bear hug.

“Don’t cry, brother. I’ll keep you safe from our mothers.”

He sniffles at you, still staying silent, reciprocating the hug back and not budging.

Pulling away from the bear hug, you grinned softly at the young blonde. “We’ll share my pretzel if you like.” You shoved the half-eaten pretzel into your brother’s face.

Percy wipes his remaining tears away, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips as he reaches for the desert.

You smiled at your generosity and so did your parents at your kindness shown towards your younger brother. They loved seeing you two get along, too bad that wholesome moment quickly diminished as you began to shout again.

“Not a big piece, you hoarder!”

“How about we get you two separate pretzels?” Sally bargained with an unsure shrug and her wife, Jessica stared at her in disbelief.

“We’re not getting them separate pretzels.” Your mom, Jessica, shakes her head.

“Why not?”

“Can’t you tell, Percy, we’re broke?”

“How broke are we?”

“We’re not broke.”

The family of four started to leave the museum as you walked hand in hand with Percy as he munched on the remainder of your pretzel. You weren’t going to fight him about it because you were getting another one.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, sweetie, I’m sure.”

“You’re not very convincing, mom.” You skipped to the pretzel stand with Percy by your side.

Sally smiles down at you. “Y/N takes after you,”

“Oh, please, no she does not.” Your mom scoffs in disagreement.

“Mom!” Percy yells out and he breaks his pencil in the process, startling some nearby students.

You glance at your brother in confusion, seeing he’s finally out of his trance state, returning to the harsh reality.

“I’m right here, sweetie,” Percy searched for the voice and internally shrank upon the actual voice of the person. It was Nancy, who was just publicly humiliating him in front of everybody. “Mommy’s here!” She fakely cooed, drawing out some laughs from her friends and others.

You glared at the redhead, smirking to yourself when she backed down and turned away from you two.

“Just ignore her.”

“Well, it’s getting quite hard not to. She’s like a pest, a human-sized annoying pest that you can’t get rid of.”

“Mr. Jackson and Ms. Matthews, you two will learn to control yourself, do you understand me?” You wince at the sudden harshness of Mrs. Dodds’ tone.

“Us?” Percy asked in shock, pointing to the group of girls, ready to defend himself.

“Listen here, lady, we didn’t do anything wrong—“

Mrs. Dodd sharply cut your statements off. “Do you understand me?”

“He can’t help it, Mrs. Dodds. Percy’s special.” Nancy wanted to be desperately involved. Oh, she’s definitely going to get what’s coming for her.

“I will fight you in front of everyone here and show you who’s really special.” You start to walk closer to the posse of girls but a strict voice halts your actions.

“That’s enough!” Mr. Brunner rolls over on his wheelchair to the two of you, “Pay them no mind. When you’re ready to hear what the gods have in store for you, they’ll tell you. I believe in you, in the both of you.”

“Thanks for the unnecessary inspiration, I guess,” You shrugged.

Mr. Brunner pulls two black pens from his suit, “And I believe you two will be needing this.”

Immediately, Percy accepts the pen from his teacher but you aren’t easily impressed or gullible by a basic pen.

“No, thanks, I already have an extra pen.”

“Take the pen, Ms. Matthews.” His demeanor was serious as you gulped, taking the pen out of his hand.

“It’s a pen, though.” You spoke dumbfounded, looking at the pen skeptically.

“Why, yes, Y/N, it is a pen,” Mr. Brunner nodded in agreement. Was he being sarcastic with you?

“Do you want us to write something with it for you?”

“Hang on to them. ‘Tis a mighty instrument,”

“It’s just a pen.” You argued. “If you’re that lazy to write, that’s not my problem, Mr. B.”

“Good day, Y/N.” He rolled away in his wheelchair. “I never knew a girl could have so many questions for a simple thing.” He murmurs to himself.

“What’s so special about this pen?” Your eyebrows furrowed in confusion, observing the simple black ink pen.

“Just let it go, sis.”

“I’m only doing that because lunch is finally here.” You shoved the pen into your sweater pocket.

“All you’re worried about is food.”

“Of course, what else is there to worry about? Food won’t hurt or pretend to love me, food is life.”

“Why do you always do that?”

“What do I always do?”

“Get real depressing when you’re hungry.”

“It’s either a depressing state or a bitchy state, be grateful.”

The trio sits by the huge water fountain and begins to eat their sandwiches while everyone else is talking and standing around with their friends.

“There are all sorts of schools of thought about what drives that kind of bullying. Childhood trauma, a feeling of inadequacy..” Grover lists off.

“Look I get that Nancy has issues, I’m just getting tired of her taking them out on me.” Percy exhales, “I feel like maybe it’s time we do something about it.”

“You could make an appointment with Mr. Kane.” Grover suggests, “He’s really great at talking to—“

“I was thinking more of shoving Nancy into the nearest dumpster,” Percy confesses with an innocent smile.

“Oh…” Grover raises his eyebrows, “That’s not what I really had intended in mind.”

“I like it, let’s do it.”

“No, no, no, Y/N, Percy, have you two learned nothing?”

“Hey, I do learn stuff, I just forget about the consequences…sometimes.”

“If there’s one thing I know about bullies, is that you should never ever stand up to them,” You frowned at that piece of advice.

“That doesn’t sound right.”

“It isn’t right.” You piped up. “That’s a stupidass logic, Grover, you’ll just give them more power than they actually need. The only way to stand up to them is to fight, make them scared of you after you beat their ass.”

“Look…I know this place is hard for people like us but we’re not gonna be here forever. There are better places out there.” Grover reassures his best friend.

A slice of cheese comes hurling your way and it lands on Grover’s face, echoing a smacking sound.

“Oops…” Nancy smirks, balling up the piece of garbage in her hand and walking away.

“Percy….”

You piped up, opening the bag of chips, “Just don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,”

Percy abruptly stands up, frustration consuming his mind, storming over to Nancy and holding his hand out. At first, Nancy stared at him unimpressed with a teasing smile to further anger your brother. Seriously, what was going on with your eyes today?! First, words were disoriented on your paper and now Percy had telekinetically thrown Nancy into the nearby fountain. He did all that within a few feet, possibly two feet away from the redhead girl.

The girl went flying back a few feet in the air, screaming at her sudden height before landing into the fountain. You stare in pure amazement at the sight, laughing slightly at the girl’s hysterics.

How was he able to do that? Did you have that same ability?

“Shit…I would have done the same thing.” You admitted.

“Percy pushed me!” Is the first thing she shouts that causes you to rush over to Percy’s aid.

“What, no I didn’t!” Percy stammers.

There were murmurs and crude looks sent in your brother’s direction but you ignored it.

Judgmental looks were the least of your concerns, moreover, the annoying buzzing sound getting louder. You found the source, furiously shaking in your sweater as you hesitantly pulled the shaking pen out.

“There you are.” A familiar voice rang out, capturing the siblings’ attention. It was Mrs. Dodds’ voice and she was walking menacingly toward you two. The woman still telepathically speaks.

“We’re not fools, Percy Jackson & Y/N Matthews.

“Mrs. Dodds, you okay?”

“It was only a matter of time before we found you two,”

Your heart pounded in your chest as you gripped Percy’s wrist on instinct by your protective nature, pulling him behind you. Both watched as she stalked closer…and it looked like she was transforming into a creature. Slowly but surely, wings started to sprout from her back and her true body revealed itself.

Mrs. Dodds wasn’t even a pretty creature either, yet you only appreciate her color of scales.

“Where is it, half-bloods?” She steps on the stairs of the fountain, “Where is it?” The creature flies above you as the sibling duo stumbles back, fearful of current threats. Too appalled by the sight of everything, Percy held onto your hand tighter as he hid behind you, resting his face in your sweater. As long as he had you by his side, he’d be fine, that’s what his parents said.

‘Protect each other and you’ll be fine. Love and care for each other and you’ll be fine. Don’t ever turn your back on each other, you’re blood siblings and that’s never changing.’

All of a sudden, she plummets down at the two of you with the intent of attacking. Her height is as intimidating as she looks and you internally bite back a gulp. You just hoped she couldn’t smell emotion, and use that to her advantage because your fear was too distinctive right now.

“Hmmm….not you…you can put up a fight,” She glared at you.

Instead of attacking you first, she decided to take Percy, knowing he was too young to understand anything. So she uses her wing to shove you away from your brother, her strength forcing you to separate from the blonde.

“No, Y/N!” Percy yells as you go flying back and crash landing into the hot dog stand truck.

Once you are down, Mrs. Dodds redirects her attention to Percy with a hiss, and the blonde stumbles backward, desperately trying to escape but falls down.

In a second, the monster is on top of him, her clawed fingers briefly skimming over the color of his shirt as she analyzes the terrified boy, “Where is it, half-blood?”

“No,” You whisper, tightening the pen’s grasp, viewing the scared interaction of your brother and that creature.

Hastily getting up from the ground, staring in bewilderment at the transformed gold sword. Huh, guess it was more than an actual pen.

Stabbing the creature in her back, ignoring her first hiss, repeatedly stabbing the monster until it was fully weakened as she eventually began to disintegrate into brown dust.

After the monster dies, you stagger onto the floor, barely sitting down with sense.

“Y/N…” His voice becomes disoriented as your vision changes into a black abyss and everything goes silent.

“Are they dead?” Someone asked.

“Are they okay?”

Managing to open your tired eyes to see a circle around, looking down on you as a groan left your mouth.

“Give them some room, please.”

By the kind demand, some students disappear, mingling back with their friends while Grover stays behind, helping you and Percy off the ground.

“What happened?” Percy breathlessly asked.

You glimpsed over at a drenched Nancy with a towel wrapped around her shoulders, who was glaring daggers at your brother while being comforted by some strange woman.

Turns out, Nancy actually got what she deserved a few minutes later and it was hilarious and shocking at the same time.

“Where’s Mrs. Dodds?”

Percy’s question goes unanswered.

“I didn’t do anything to him.” Nancy exclaims and the woman escorts her away, “He pushed me.”

“Everybody go back to your lunches.” He commands the other students, who still stare and murmur amongst themselves at the sibling duo. “It’s all right Y/N and Percy, just need a moment, that’s all.”

“I didn’t understand, didn’t anyone just see that? Where’s Mrs. Dodds?” You persisted.

At your question, Mr. Brunner and Grover shared a glance.

“Y/N, there’s no one here by that name,”

“Yes, there was. She had white hair in a 1950s hairstyle, wore a trench coat, and totally gave off creeper stalker vibes.

“As I said before, there’s no one here by that name.”

“You sure?” Percy questions.

“I’m quite sure,” Mr. Brunner reaffirms with a tight-lipped smile, “All right, class, let’s move soon. Let’s go, finish your lunches.”

Long story short, all three of you got called into the principal’s office, and heavily questioned because of the earlier incident with Nancy. This talk was definitely not going to be good. By the time you were ready to leave, Grover shocked you with his statement, claiming he saw Percy push Nancy into the fountain.

Observing your brother’s reaction to his best friend’s huge lie, betrayed by the other boy, ultimately thinking he was just like the rest. You gave him a small smile, rubbing his back to reassure him that you were there for him. That’s what you always do, protect and love your younger brother like your life depends on it.

Guess, that’s the end of going to this school, you and Percy are going home! Might as while call your parents and inform them of your early visitation.

Sitting on a bench with your belongings beside you, Percy looks gloomy, probably still portraying Grover’s betrayal in his mind. He seemed to be out of it and you didn’t bother him either. This was his time to reflect on everything that happened so far.

“None of this is easy,” Mr. Brunner strolled in, “Not for you two, not for any of us. I’m very concerned about you two, I saw what happened at the museum.”

“I didn’t touch Nancy.” Percy’s self-reassurance started to sound like a plea. He just wished for Mr. Brunner to believe him, because it seemed like no one was on his side, except for you.

“I know you didn’t. At least, I know you think you didn’t.”

“Listen here, Mr. B, I saw what happened too and my brother’s telling the truth.”

“Do you want to tell me what you think happened? You can tell me. I might just understand.”

“You wanna bet?” Percy tilts his head.

“Percy…Y/N,” He lowly chuckles, “I’ve seen a lot of young people go through this sort of thing in my time, but of all of them, I suspect that…you might have the most difficult journey.”

“Oh, because that puts us at such ease,”

“It was not meant to put you at ease,” Mr. Brunner recorrects you. “I suspect that you two are special. So much more so than you know.”

“Just…stop.” The blonde boy heavily sighs. “Okay, I don’t need any more stories about how special me and my sister don’t realize we are. They aren’t helping in the slightest.”

“And I’m pretty sure I’m dyslexic,” You interrupted. “If that counts as special.”

“Ms. Matthews, you’re special but not in the way you assume.” Mr. Brunner implies.

“How is that relevant?”

“It’s not, I just wanted to feel included.”

“Of course, you do.”

A green, vintage two-seater truck pulls up, signaling your departure for returning home.

“This is our ride, we’re going home.” You spoke to the History teacher, “Get your bags, Percy, let’s go.”

Percy nods at the teacher before retrieving his bags and following into the Yancy Academy truck alongside you. Once you two were settled in the vehicle, the driver revived his engine and pulled out of the driveway.

Goodbye, Yancy Academy, you were decent while it lasted.

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© asvterias, 2024. please do not copy, repost, or translate any of my works onto any other platforms without my permission.

[tortoise-bearing-cups]

Ministry rambles goooo (because someone reblogged an old comment of mine I never explained and why not, let's speculate a bit on the Ministry)

One of the things I find interesting is that Fudge gets himself in this position of power yet he is so influencable. But I don't think he's just some idiot. I think he has reasons for his decisions, and those reasons are: don't get in trouble.

Take Umbridge. I assume his relationship with her is like keeping a mean dog on a long leash. The leash is short enough that the dog isn't going to bite your kids. But it might bite the people you don't like, because it knows you don't like them, and you can just go, whoopsie! Dogs bite, y'know, it's in their nature, nothing for it. Best case scenario, the dog bites lots of people you don't like and there are no consequences. Worst case scenario, you can just shoot the dog.

So. Percy.

Percy is a very competent, overworking person with no idea what he's worth. I have a few guesses as to why he was allowed to run a department in the first place. His coworkers have their own jobs and may not want to take on extra work, especially if it's so much work Percy barely goes home. (Though he might also have been overworking himself to prove himself, or he may just not have wanted to go home.) It seems kind of strange that none of them are ambitious and want to take advantage--if Crouch was against hiring ambitious people, he wouldn't have hired Percy. Possibly they're all burnt out from failed ambitions already, say if Crouch takes on ambitious people, works them for everything they have, then promotes the next eager young person. (I have worked places like this.)

From outside the department, it may appear that Crouch has the new guy doing everything precisely because no one is going to promote Percy straight to Department Head. If someone more experienced replaced Crouch for months, they might get his job!

(As a side note, I am so, so curious about what Barty Jr.'s instructions were here. How much does he understand about his father's job? Was Percy getting good instructions or getting vague direction and having to figure things out himself? He didn't know about the Second task despite how involved he was with the Tournament, or he wouldn't have been surprised by Ron being there. There's also a lot of room for like, Dumbledore telling Percy that things are handled, and then when Percy shows up no one can see the task and it makes the Ministry look bad, because Dumbledore is not happy about the Ministry interfering at Hogwarts.)

But anyway, Percy and Fudge. Percy's job seems to be following Fudge around attending to him, writing things down, maybe keeping his schedule. (As others have said, he is perfectly positioned to spy on Fudge, oh my god, why would you accuse Percy of being hired to spy on Dumbledore and break with him.)

Fudge is very easily influenced, but again, I don't think this is just because he's stupid. It's blame-passing. His direct influences, Dumbledore and Malfoy, are directly opposed. He can listen to both of them, make what ever decision he wants, then claim that one of them convinced him.

It's not his fault!

Which is how, with Dumbledore gone, you can have Percy fill Dumbledore's role. It's not Fudge's fault that he made that decision, his assistant's information said it was what the people wanted.

(An interesting question is if Percy knows he's being used like this. I don't think knowing would stop him. He is GOING to oppose Malfoy's bullshit and get the result he wants, consequences be damned. And I can only see Percy getting more and more cynical as he sees how the Ministry actually works.

Though ...

What Percy sees is what people are willing to bring to Fudge, a guy who's made his opinions on Voldemort's revival clear. I can see Percy thinking that if there were any proof, it would cross Fudge's desk. But no one is going to bring Fudge information he will just ignore except to get mad at them, and it might take Percy a while to pick that up.)

... which is how we get to the scenario I was talking about, where Malfoy gets in trouble in 5th year and is no longer influencing Fudge. Fudge needs people to give him opinions. Fudge can try to replace Malfoy with another assistant, but unless he's willing to bring Umbridge back from Hogwarts, no one in that office is out-stubborning Percy. He has so many opinions, so many statistics, and he had to explain what statistics even are because the Wizarding World doesn't have them and--

So Percy ends up deciding a lot of things. Why stop him? Fudge has bigger problems, and if it goes bad, he can just get rid of him!

(Also, when Fudge gets punted the rest of the Ministers are like, "You want to do all the inglorious work of running the Ministry while I focus on the war? Sounds good to me!" Which puts Percy in a position to be vital to the Ministry but not seen as a threat, and to fuck with the DEs when they take over.)

[diana-bookfairchild]

@hinnymicrofic June Day 5: Dirty

Harry always came back from his playdates with Ron Weasley extremely dirty.

Molly had tried to apologize to them about that once. Lily had laughed it off. “Boys will be boys,” she’d told her son’s best friend’s mother.

“We’re sorry about Harry getting Ron into all this trouble,” James had added. “I’m sure he’s the instigator.”

Thus had borne the friendship between the adults as well.

This last one, though, had had her eight-year-old son grumbling like never before. “It’s not going to be just Ron and me this time!” He complained. “His whole family will be there.”

“Sounds like fun to me,” Lily had said, trying to wrangle him into decent clothes rather than the garish monstrosities he liked to wear at home. James’ influence, certainly.

“It’s not,” Harry whined. “Fred and George are cool, but Percy is the worst. He doesn’t like playing and is all smug about going to Hogwarts and is always lecturing Ron an’ me about getting so dirty!” He sniffed and crossed his arms. “And Ginny’s a girl!”

“What’s wrong with that?” She asked amused. “I’m a girl, I’ll have you know.”

Harry waved it off with childish imperious impatience. “You’re Mummy,” he said importantly, like those things were mutually exclusive. “’S different.”

“Oh, is it?” Lily began tickling her son mercilessly. “I’ll show you what girls can do!”

Harry began to giggle helplessly, attempting to fend her off. “Stop, Mum! Dad! Dad, help!”

It had grown into an all-out tickle and pillow war, with the boys ganging up on her before she trounced them handily.

“Don’t underestimate girls, son,” James had groaned at Harry, who nodded miserably in reply.

They’d sent him off with hugs and kisses through the Floo, and Molly came in their fireplace to announce his safe arrival.

“He loves Ron,” James assured her. “And he’ll get over the others being there. He’ll have fun.”

Lily smiled at him mischievously. “And whatever will we do while he’s there?”

 They had plenty of fun themselves, and were waiting for Harry to come through three hours later.

He was practically glowing, despite being so incredibly dirty.

“She’s amazing!” He said, starstruck.

They exchanged a look with raised eyebrows. Their son looked to be in love. “Who is?”

“Ginny, of course!” Harry exclaimed, like they were ridiculous for not knowing when he hadn’t ever expressed anything like this. “She played awesome! She was on my team, and we beat everyone!” He beamed.

“Wow,” James said enthusiastically. “She sounds great.”

Harry nodded wildly. “And she flies really good, Dad. Better than you, even!”

Lily highly doubted a seven-year-old girl flew better than someone who could have gone professional, but amused at their son’s gushing, they humoured him. “Oh really?”

“I’ll have to fly against her, then.” James said, smiling.

“She’ll beat you,” Harry assured them. “She’s the best. I told Mrs. Weasley that she should always be there to play with us.”

“So she’s a better friend to you than Ron?” James asked.

Harry looked conflicted, before his face cleared. Lily couldn’t wait to hear his reply. He adored Ron from the bottom of his heart, but it looked like Ginny was his first crush. She couldn’t believe her baby was so grown up already.

“No!” He exclaimed. “Ron’s my best friend. Like Uncle Sirius is to you, dad!”

“And what is Ginny?” He asked.

“She’s what Mum is to you!” Harry said, obviously very pleased with himself. Lily and James both choked, in laughter and shock. “I’m gonna marry her someday!”

Lily recovered first. “Sure thing, big boy,” she ruffled his hair and he pouted up at her. “But now you need to go wash and get all that dirt off you.”

He nodded easily – he was an obedient child except for his wild streak – and made his way up the stairs to his room. Lily and James stared at each other.

“His first crush,” James said, sounding half-pained, half happy.

“Apparently, he’s going to marry her one day,” she said, experience the same mixture of emotions. “Let’s not tell him kid crushes don’t usually work out.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” James grinned at her. “Mine did.”

“Oh, shove off!” Lily grumbled playfully, but she was smiling.

“I was eleven years old when I got my first crush, and I did end up marrying her.” James continued. “Who’s to say Harry won’t?”

“Who’s to say indeed,” Lily laughed, kissing her husband.

Harry and Ginny’s story would certainly prove to be interesting.

Lily couldn’t wait to see that and the rest of her son’s life unfold.

[tagthescullion]

The Friend of my Friend

Fandom(s): Percy Jackson & the Olympians

Summary: Being a teenager sucks. Being a clear-sighted teenager sucks even more. But nothing, nothing in the world, sucks more than being a teenager hated by the most beautiful girl you've ever seen. Specially when you don't even know why.

(Or: Rachel has a massive crush on Annabeth).

Rating: G

Words: 2600 (such a beautiful round number)

AO3 link

Rachel turned away as Percy dropped by the wall beside her. The only light they had was that of his bronze sword, faint in the oppressive darkness, but still, she didn’t want to risk him reading her expression.

Percy Jackson could be obtuse but he was a good friend, he would recognise her misery straight away.

“She’ll come around eventually,” he whispered.

Rachel sighed. So much for keeping her thoughts to herself. 

She tried to find the sleeping form of Annabeth Chase, but she could only hear her deep breaths. She’d fallen asleep a while ago. And thank God for that, the last thing she needed was the daughter of Athena listening to Percy’s tactless remarks.

“She hates me,” she murmured back. “I have no idea what I’ve done!”

That wasn’t true, Rachel told herself. She hadn’t stopped staring at Annabeth the whole time she’d spent with her and Percy on this damned quest.

It wasn’t her fault. She didn’t choose to find her attractive, she just did!

But it didn’t seem to matter. Clearly the girl was repulsed by Rachel’s attention. 

It frustrated her, if she was honest. It wasn’t as if she’d made Annabeth uncomfortable. She hadn’t made any moves or anything, but she knew some people were just like that.

“Chiron says she can be possessive about her friends,” Percy told her. “That she has trouble letting people into her life.”

Rachel shrugged. She wasn’t convinced. If Annabeth didn’t like people, she’d treat Rachel plainly, but not in such a mean way. Being distrustful was one thing, but being completely rude was another. 

Percy studied her expression. “Go to sleep,” he said. “I’ll take the first watch, I’ll wake you guys up later, yeah?”

Rachel didn’t argue. She was exhausted. She couldn’t understand how demigods went on and on with barely any sleep. Still, it was the most interesting summer she’d ever had, and probably ever would.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Rachel saw the pegasi fly off as she dragged her feet towards the closest subway station, and felt the heaviness of loneliness settle into her. The way an adrenaline rush passes and leaves you feeling worn-out and light-headed. She realised, embraced suddenly by reality, that she would have to face her mother and father, who would likely not be pleased with her unexplained disappearance.

As she boarded the train, attracting more than a few wary glances, she thought about the last minutes with her new group of friends –if she could even call them that–. 

Percy had been kind, as always. Rachel was impressed that he’d memorised her phone number. It looked as if he could actually talk to those horses. That was, in Rachel’s eyes, the best of his superpowers. She had always wanted to talk to animals.

The young boy, Nico, had intrigued her. He was tiny, couldn’t be more than eleven, she wondered whether it was normal for demigods to be left to their own devices in sixth grade. The kid had seemed powerful, stubborn, resilient… if a bit rough around the edges. She tried not to compare him, hungry, and a bit wild, to a boy talking his mother’s ear off in the seat in front of her.

Rachel got off at the next station and breathed in the not-very-clear Brooklyn air. There was a construction site on her way home. They were building a huge apartment block, dust blew over towards her, making her sneeze.

She felt bad for Grover. She didn’t know him much, but she had been fighting her causes for as long as she could remember. Reaching the end of a lifelong quest to feel you failed must be terrible. It wasn’t as if his job was over, even if Pan was dead –gone, faded–, Grover had been given the seemingly impossible task to save green spaces by the same deity he’d been searching for his whole life!

Rachel felt a moment of raw anger against her father and the people like him. Could they not see the irreparable damage they were causing? 

She kicked a stone hard. It banged against a light-post causing a couple of pigeons to coo indignantly.

They flapped their wings, attracting the attention of a golden Labrador passing by. His owner, a big man with soft eyes, stopped to pat the dog’s head.

He reminded her of Tyson. The image of him calmly approaching the pegasi, stroking their necks and talking to them in soothing tones was almost enough to dissipate the irritability she felt.

But then she remembered Annabeth. 

God, she had barely even looked at Rachel as she was about to leave. She glanced her way for a fraction of a second with a face full of distaste and that was it. Simple and effective, Rachel hadn’t dared look her way again after that. 

She shook her head. It wasn’t fair to blame Annabeth. If it had been a tough day for Rachel, she could not imagine how utterly nasty it had been for her. 

Rachel didn’t know the whole story with Luke. Whether he’d been a brother to Annabeth, or a friend, a mentor, a crush. Whatever the story was, Rachel knew he’d been important to her. And he had let her down, time and time again.

It was hard not to follow into Percy’s anger when Annabeth had defended Luke so passionately. Luke didn’t deserve shit, much less the unconditional support of Annabeth Chase.

Rachel sighed. In Annabeth’s eyes, Rachel herself didn’t deserve that affection either, that much was clear.

She stood in front of her front door. She took a giant breath before knocking twice. She looked awful, she felt even worse, and to make her future even bleaker, she was facing her parents’ wrath. Not worried anger, born of care. They’d be upset because she’d used her father’s name to get that damned chauffeur to drive them around Denver.

Haldane, their butler, opened the door. To his credit, he looked only a bit bemused.

“Welcome back home, Miss Dare,” he said simply.

Home… that was one way to call it.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Rachel was excited. After almost a month into the school year, she had finally convinced Percy to go bowling with her.

She knew this fantastic 80s-themed alley with smoothies to die for. And it was not too expensive, she knew Percy wasn’t comfortable being invited everywhere. 

She was waiting for him by the door. 

She’d picked her outfit to go with the decor. A pretty sweatshirt in strong colours that she was proud to say didn’t match her hair at all, and straight-legged, high-waist overalls to give it a final retro touch.

She was keeping an eye out for a teenager on his own –with a high probability of collateral monsters– so she missed Percy’s arrival completely.

Somebody poked her shoulder, making her jump while she turned, which resulted in a clumsy ballerina flip that would’ve ended with her on her ass if it wasn’t for Percy’s quick reflexes.

“Elegant.” A dry voice offered from the side.

Rachel’s attention, which had been focused on apologising to Percy, snapped to the side.

She was there. Annabeth Chase was there. In all her tomboy, I-don’t-care-what-you-think-of-me glory. 

Rachel’s feelings turned surprised, annoyed, and joyful in the span of a second. Her cheeks were burning, but to hell if she would let this girl —the woman of her dreams or not—  make her look bad in front of her friend.

“I was aiming for dramatic,” she replied. “Elegance is overrated.”

Percy smiled. Annabeth rolled her eyes. 

Once inside, Percy looked around with interest. Rachel knew he liked the vibes, he was a hopeless fan of The Breakfast Club, Back to the Future, and a bunch of other cliché 80s movies his mom had shown him.

“I’ll go get us set,” Annabeth announced as they went in, leaving Rachel and Percy to get in line for their shoes.

“Why did you bring her?” Rachel asked once they were out of earshot.

Percy looked confused. “Because she’s a friend. You said it would be nice to go out more and meet new people.”

“Right,” she didn’t want to tell him Annabeth didn’t count as new people because they both did, in fact, know her. “And did she know I was coming?”

He blushed. 

“I told her on the way!” He said defensively.

No wonder she’d been so angry. 

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

As far as Rachel’s summers went, flying into a warzone and immediately having her pilot fall asleep was almost as bad as seeing nature fade into oblivion the year before. 

She panicked, yelled, clutched the pilot’s seat, shook him roughly, yelled some more, and accepted she’d die a grotesque death squashed between the helicopter’s cabin and a skyscraper.

Only after having reached that phase of despair, did she hear a loud tapping outside the window, prompting her to look out and see…

“What the hell?”

Annabeth Chase’s floating form appeared on the other side of the door, her head bobbing as —Rachel tried to look out without feeling dizzy— her pegasus' wings flapped. Behind her, like a loyal puppy, Percy Jackson held on for dear life.

Shocked as she was, Rachel missed Annabeth’s enraged expression and subsequent screaming.

Rachel shook her head. With the noise of the helicopter and the erratic boom-boom of her heart in her ears she had no idea what the girl wanted.

Annabeth and Percy pointed at the door and disappeared from view as they dodged the helicopter’s propellers.

Finally, Rachel understood.

She forced her wobbly legs to drag her to the side of the cabin and struggled with the lock. 

After several seconds in which her mind —not working well that day, obviously— reminded her that Annabeth would think her a useless idiot if she couldn’t so much as open the damned helicopter door, she heard a thump as something —someone— slammed into the outside of the copper.

Annabeth had jumped off the pegasus and was holding on to the handle with all her strength.

Rachel pushed hard and managed to slide the door open, to grab Annabeth and to pull her inside without catapulting herself off the flying vehicle —a feat she considered heroic by itself—.

“Took you long enough,” Annabeth gasped as a greeting.

She didn’t seem afraid of their imminent death, which was very cool. Instead, she looked annoyed as hell.

“I—” Rachel looked around, finding some excuse. “And the pegasus?”

Annabeth looked worried for a second but she schooled her expression. “Percy will take care of him, he’s good with horses.”

Rachel nodded. “I don’t know how to fly this. The pilot fell asleep as soon as we got into Manhattan.”

She grunted as affirmative, pushing poor Phillips off his seat, and taking his place.

She pulled a lever, pressed some buttons, and the copper stabilised. 

“Wait,” Rachel said. “You can fly a helicopter?”

She shrugged. Despite facing away from her, Rachel could see her smirk in the reflection of the windshield. “It’s not that hard.”

Rachel was about to differ but Annabeth made the goddamned thing descend so quickly her ears popped. She threw herself on her seat and put her seatbelt on.

Once safely on the ground, having landed in the middle of Fifth Avenue —which was unnervingly still—, Annabeth got off her seat and stretched.

“That was fun,” she said. 

Then she jumped off the helicopter.

Rachel slowly moved her trembling legs to the open door. She held onto the handle and looked down.

She thought of Phillip, and pushed him off the helicopter with her.

They landed with a thud and, immediately, Rachel tried to find her bearings.

She saw Percy and Annabeth discussing something a few feet away; Percy with an awed expression Rachel could relate to, and Annabeth looking particularly pleased with herself.

“You saved my life,” Rachel said, only a bit sorry for interrupting them.

Annabeth flexed her shoulder, as if it hurt. “Yeah, well… let's not make a habit of it. What are you doing here, Dare? Don't you know better than to fly into a war zone?”

“I—" Rachel glanced at Percy, trying to convey that they had to speak alone. She didn’t want to say that out loud, she was afraid it would offend Annabeth. Instead, she said: “I had to be here. I knew Percy was in trouble.”

“Got that right,” Annabeth scoffed. “Well, if you'll excuse me, I have some injured  friends I've got to tend to. Glad you could stop by, Rachel.”

Rachel sighed. It was the worst time in the universe to be thinking she wanted to be liked by a girl who had never so much as been neutral to her existence.

She dropped down on the curb and put her head in her hands. “I'm sorry, Percy. I didn't mean to… I always mess things up.”

And she was about to mess them up even worse when she told Percy her weird Force-vision had told her he wasn’t the hero. The hero of what? Rachel had no clue. But it wasn’t Percy.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

It was boiling hot by the time her dad’s chauffeur was to pick her up in a gas station nearby Camp.

Rachel had promised she’d go to that stupid finishing school, and she always kept her promises. 

Which meant she was now saying goodbye to her new friends and to the new world she’d become part of. 

“You'll do great,” Annabeth reassured her as she hugged her. 

Rachel tried not to blush. She was the Oracle now, and couldn’t think about hot people.

Still, it had been such a relief that Annabeth had warmed up to her at last. She’d been worried about invading her territory, after all, the daughter of Athena had been at Camp for ages, who was Rachel to invite herself into her turf?

But it didn't seem to bother her. If anything, she looked quite overjoyed about Rachel’s new job.

Rachel bit her lip before replying: “I hope you're right. I'm a little worried. What if somebody asks what's on the next math test and I start spouting a prophecy in the middle of geometry class?  The Pythagorean theorem shall be problem two… Gods, that would be embarrassing.”

Annabeth laughed, which made Rachel smile. Making Annabeth laugh was hard these days, what with everybody still mourning their losses. 

“Well,” she added, “you two be good to each other.”

Annabeth smiled ruefully, but Percy looked at her weird.

“What do you mean?”

Rachel shared a look with Annabeth.

“Nothing,” Rachel said. “Forget it.”

Percy tilted his head. “But—”

“Let go, Seaweed Brain,” Annabeth said, blushing slightly. “It’s awkward to have to explain.”

Rachel was a firm believer of not clarifying things if it made the matter worse, but clearly Annabeth wasn’t, and neither was Percy.

“Oh,” he said, giving Annabeth a shrug. “Because you think it’s funny that she dumped me without even dating me?”

Annabeth blushed harder.

Rachel said, “What?”

“Yeah, when we were in Olympus, remember?” Percy asked. “Sorry if it was a secret, I just thought it was ridiculous, a bit pathetic for me, but funny after it happened.”

“No,” Rachel shook her head. “I remember that, but I wasn’t dumping you.”

Annabeth waved a hand, clearly uncomfortable. “You don’t owe us any explanations, it’s okay that you liked him.”

“Him?” Rachel couldn’t believe her ears, nor the bemused faces both Percy and Annabeth had. “I didn’t have a crush on him,” she argued. She pointed at Annabeth. “I had a crush on you.”

“Oh.”

It was safe to say Rachel had never, nor would ever, see Annabeth look so astonished in her entire life.

[reluctanttrabbit]

since you have come to my aid with writing prompts so much in the past in my times of need I will try my best

gregory and vanessa gaming and squabbling with eachother

vanessa and Gregory going to get icecream on a little weekend trip. maybe something sad happened to them and it's their way of trying to feel better

Vanessa's moment of reclaiming her rainbow hair and how she works up the courage alongside Gregory and freddy

vanny gets reprimanded by glitchtrap/mimic for a small mistake and her and rab bicker over it like siblings "oooh ur in trouble" (or vice versa)

since you said you wanted to practice dialogue, maybe Gregory and vanessa texting eachother

a little bonding moment between 3 star fam recent to the end of sb while they're still getting to know each other

vanessa being called to Gregory's school for a meeting because he got into a fight/something else

good luck my mutual o7

OH MY GOD percy to the rescue :sob: i might do a few of these actually this is so helpful

long post ahead!! i enjoyed this so much

------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. The End of the Rainbow

A man and a dog walks by. Then a group of students. Then one person on a phone call.

"Okay, uhhh... try and find someone wearing a bunch of colors."

Vanessa, Gregory and Freddy ('s head) sit by their apartment's window, eyes scanning everyone that passes by. The last few raindrops on the window fall down as the sun shines on their faces like a hug.

"A bunch?" Gregory asks. "How much would a bunch be? Like two, or five colors, whats the limit here?"

Vanessa laughs. "Dude, I don't know! Let's say four. Four colors in one outfit."

Gregory nods diligently, treating this minigame like a quest. The odd little family had spent the day inside after nonstop hours of raining, and people-watching was their one of many ways of entertainment.

Gregory and Freddy fight for victory, while Vanessa's mind wanders off a bit. She starts to focus on the weather more than the people, as rain pours down its last bits of water. Her eyes fall on a specific part of the sky, where it looks.. blurry. She focuses more, now understanding shes looking at a rainbow. The colors are dull, but they're still there, trying their best to shine.

Something about that rainbow felt important to Vanessa.

She comes back to reality to find Gregory off of the couch and now spinning around with Freddy in his arms, like how parents spin their kids.

"Gregory, please be careful!" Freddys warns between laughter. If robots could get dizzy, Vanessa guessed Freddy would be by now.

Vanessa steals one more look of the rainbow and stands up, ruffling Gregory's hair and balancing him while making her way to her bedroom. Clothes and plushies are strewn across the floor, almost with no care. I definitely have to start cleaning up, she thinks. She walks down the path of fallen rabbits and lambs and old flannels to her bed and lets herself fall onto it.

It had only been two weeks after Gregory, Vanessa and Freddy had been freed from the pizzaplex. Years of her life had gone by, and some parts she cant even remember, all because of the virus. But on one hand, Vanessa was glad Gregory was in the same condition. He didn't deserve to remember it. To experience it. To know that he took a part in it.

Vanessa fiddles with her sweater sleeves before she gets right back up and rummages through her closet. An old photo album, something from her mother.

Vanessa looks fondly at pictures of baby her, then pictures of teen her and her friends, with some scenery. The last and most recent picture was of Vanessa and her coworkers at the old VR company she had worked for.

And she noticed something.

Young, 19-year old Vanessa with rainbow streaks in her curly hair.

"..Hey Greg, you wanna go to the store for a sec?"

--

"You used to dye your own hair?" Gregory asked, sitting on the bathtub watching as Vanessa puts a towel and gloves on.

"A lot, yeah. But I barely remembered that it was rainbow once, usually I just did... blue and pink, or something."

"That is a very unique fact, Ms. Vanessa!" Freddy remarked, cushioned on a towel on the floor.

"Really?" Vanessa chuckled.

"Uh, hell yeah. You didn't have to ask for permission or anything, you just did it. It's rad." Gregory piped back in.

Vanessa felt her smile grow bigger as she heard the boy. From what she remembered of her in-between memories (a name Vanessa and Gregory use for the things they can remember when they were under the virus' control) she knew Gregory was a runaway. She never inquired why out of respect, but she thought it was be related to his parents. After all, she did that herself.

"Do you wanna help, then?" she turned around. Gregory practically jumped up at the request, and started opening the packaging.

"I have no idea how to do this, so you're gonna have to guide me." Vanessa took the first few colors, and faltered for a second.

"That's, uh... me neither, actually. God, I forgot that much?"

"Hey, its okay. I'll just grab your phone and pull up a video." Gregory did his best to reassure Vanessa, and she was more than happy for that. Once Gregory left the room, she turned to the mirror and studied herself.

She remembered how the virus wouldn't let her keep her rainbow streaks, especially after that one IT guy told her he liked them. What was his name? She'd have to log back into her company email at some point, if she still even had access to it.

"Are you okay, Of- Vanessa?" Freddy asked. she nearly forgot the bear (head) was in the room with her.

"Yeah, yeah. Just thinking."

"..Would you like to think together?" Vanessa laughed at that. That was Freddy's way of asking if he could hear her thoughts and give her a solution. Vanessa sat down against the bathtub, adjusting herself.

"I'm not sure how to articulate it to you.." she sighs. "Ok. I feel kind of... scared to do this. There's no rational reason why, but I've been dying my hair ever since I was 14. I started because I wanted to rebel against my dad, I guess."

"He wouldn't let you do it?"

"In a way. He didn't approve of it, so of course I wanted to rub it in his face. But something about the rainbow streaks is different. It just is."

They sat in silence. Vanessa was never going to get over how awkward it was to talk to a robot.

"I believe.. it is because you were a different person then. This is before you were controlled, correct?"

Vanessa nods.

"I see. You were different before you got controlled, and you were able to do what you wanted. But when you got controlled, it scared you. It made you listen. And now that you are free, you are still used to feeling like you are controlled. And maybe the virus did not allow you to dye your hair, so you are scared to dye your hair in fear of punishment."

Vanessa cant help but let her jaw drop a bit.

"That was... really insightful, Freddy. How did you just explain PTSD??"

If the bear still had his body, Vanessa assumed he would have shrugged. "I am not sure what that is, but I trust that answered your question, yes?"

"More than enough, bud." She reflected on Freddy's words and smiled at him, waiting for Gregory,

--

The end credits to Rapunzel rolled as the three were cuddled up on the couch. Only a few lights were on, and everyone was doing their best to not doze off(or in Freddy's case, power off). Vanessa had her hair up in a towel, with her sweater visibly stained.

"One more movie?" she asked the room. Gregory hummed a yes, and Vanessa got up to the DVD player and sifted through her collection

"Alright, uh.. 'Beetlejuice'? Is that appropriate for you?" she questioned.

"I feel like I shouldn't be the one to answer that," Gregory said from across the room. "But if you put it on, I wouldn't complain."

Vanessa waited for the DVD player to eject the disc and set Beetlejuice in, getting up to crawl back into her spot on the couch. But her phone alarm went off.

"Oh, I can probably take this out now." she redirected to pick up her phone and went straight for the bathroom.

"I wanna see!' Gregory bolted up, before backtracking to take Freddy with him and following suit.

Everyone huddled around the mirror as Vanessa unraveled the towel and let her hair loose. The right side of her hair was a vibrant rainbow, with her hair still a bit wet, but Vanessa couldn't have been happier. Everyone was in awe of how the color turned out.

"Could you dye my hair blue?" Gregory whispered breathlessly, and Vanessa chuckled.

"We'll save that for tomorrow, squirt."

Gregory along with Freddy made his way back into the living room as Vanessa lagged behind for a bit.

In that moment, it hit her that she was finally free from the virus. From the virus, and from her dad. She now has her own place, with her own family, and shes her own person again.

She liked to think that dying her hair was now a middle finger to both of them. Being free in general was a middle finger to both of them.

And slowly but surely, she was recovering.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4. Get Out of My Room

Maybe something in Vanny had wanted to let that kid go. She saw herself in their terrified eyes, and how they wanted to be free. Maybe Vanessa had gotten through to her somehow. But none of it mattered, because now she was getting a lecture full of technical nonsense.

"Task failed. Goal not achieved. Goal: bring [ENDOSKELETON] to [MIMIC_01]. [MIMIC_01] breaks off limbs and heads."

Vanny rolled her eyes. She zoned out and paid no attention to the Malhare, waiting for it to stop talking. She was good at waiting. Its all she seemed to do. Wait for commands. Follow through, no matter the command.

"Do you understand, [VANNY]?" the glitching rabbit now turned to Vanny, floating closer and closer until she couldn't take it.

"..Yes."

"Don't let anyone or anything lead you astray. Again."

Vanny couldn't help but snort at the 'again' bit. She recomposed herself. "Yes."

"Good. Rest."

Vanny practically burst out of the ruins of that old pizzeria, pulling that horrid mask off and wanting more than anything to get back into her- Vanessa's office. Their only sanctuary.

But of course, she couldn't have what she wanted.

"What happened in there?" Dr. Rabbit, her coworker asked. Funny enough, her coworker was a 12-year old kid, out of his suit and only wearing a blue Bonnie mask.

"None of your business." Vanny retorted.

"What, did you get grounded or something?"

"No, I won a vacation, actually. So I'll never have to see you again."

"Vacations aren't endless, stupid."

"Oh my god, shut up.." she growled as the kid followed her up to the elevator.

They piled into the unstable excuse for an elevator, and sat in silence as the pizzaplex's distorted theme played.

"Once we change, or once you change, can we grab some pizza?" Rab asked his partner.

"..You're paying." Vanny leaned against the railing.

"No fair, this kid is homeless! And the pizza here is always like $20!" Rab protested.

"That hasn't stopped you yet, has it?"

"Well geez, have some pity."

Vanny chuckled as they reached the top, making sure to step over the debris and rubble. A few feet behind her, she heard Rab shriek and hit the ground.

"Oh my god, are you-" she caught herself. Don't offer help. Remember.

"...I'm fine." he winced.

"You are very obviously not fine." she lent out her hand. It was a few seconds before Rab took it.

"Are you good? Can you walk?"

"Um.. I don't know." he shifted. Maybe it was too awkward for them to be nice to eachother, as odd as that sounded.

"Forget about it, I'll pay for the pizza." Vanny supported Rab as they traveled up the stairs to the empty Roxy Raceway

"Well, I was gonna make you one way or another." Rab muttered.

They both laughed. Maybe they didn't have to be best buddies, but they could be allies. They were both stuck in the same boat.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

7. (idk what to name this one im tired. update later maybe)

Vanessa tapped the steering wheel over and over and she waited at the red light. Just a few minutes ago, she had gotten a call to come to Gregory's school. She didn't know what to expect. Did he get hurt? Did he hurt some other kid? Was he skipping? The anxiety was eating at her.

Freddy sat politely in the passenger's seat right next to Vanessa, with the seat belt tight on him.

"I am sure it has nothing to do with his grades, Vanessa. He is a smart kid."

"I know Fred, that's the problem. If its not about his grades he could be hurt or something." She turned left down the street where his school was, with the sidewalks full of students coming back from lunch.

"Ok, for.. obvious reasons, you're staying in here. I'll update you as soon as I can, okay?" She told the bear as she settled into a parking spot and closed the door. Her heart was racing at this point.

Vanessa stepped into the school, looking around for the office as groups of preteens walking by gave her weird looks. She looked at a wall with a window and saw chocolate brown hair that she'd recognize anywhere. She strolled over and knocked on the office door, to be greeted by a secretary or a principal; Vanessa wasn't sure.

"Hello, Vanessa." the man greeted her. "I'm Mr. Raglan, nice to meet you." Vanessa shook hands with Mr. Raglan and nodded.

"You too, uhh... so what was the problem? Is Gregory ok?" she asked, hoping she didn't sound like she was on the verge of a panic attack. She was.

"Oh, well the problem.. Let's take a seat."

Vanessa looked to her right and lo and behold, Gregory was sitting balled up in his chair, like a stray dog flinching at a human's touch. His best friend Cassie was sitting in the chair beside him, looking embarrassed to have her first impression to Vanessa be in the school's office. The two kids beside them in their chairs had recently been crying, one of them with an ice pack. Their parents glared at Vanessa, and she immediately looked away.

What the hell did Gregory do?

--

"I'm sure if we like.. posted about it, they'd reach out to us. Right?" Cassie laid out on the grass of the school's playground.

Gregory laid parallel to her. He admired how she thought it would be this easy to find his friends. It had been a year since Gregory broke free of the virus, and learned about his old friend group. Tony(who also happened to be one of the missing kids), Ellis, and Amelia. He learned from Cassie that Amelia goes to a different school, and Ellis and his family had moved entirely. Gregory had lost hope in Tony a long time ago. But theres a part of him that wants to believe he made it out, somehow. Maybe Rab let him go? Gregory wouldn't remember.

"I don't even know if they'd want anything to do with me anymore. To be honest, I always thought Amelia hated me."

"What? No, you guys got along so well! You two are the exact same person. I'm sure of it."

Gregory snickered at that.

"And I'm sure that they're also worried about you. I mean.. I dont know if you'd remember it, but Ellis was a mess when he heard about Tony. He was even worse when he heard about you."

Gregory teared up a bit, considering his options.

"..Yeah, we should try and find them. Where would we post it?"

"Snapchat or Tiktok, I dunno." Cassie remarked. "I still have their accounts."

Suddenly, they felt two shadows over them. A couple of eighth graders; Gregory couldn't remember their names.

"Hey guys, what are we talking about?" the girl asked. Violet, or Vivian.

Crap. Gregory blanked.

"Comics. We're, uh.. gonna make one."

The boy, Mark, snorted. "What, like Captain Underpants? You guys think you're George and Harold?"

"Captain Underpants was kinda good." Cassie muttered.

"That's fair. Y'know, you should make a comic about how Gregory went missing. And with that other kid.. what was his name? Terry?" Mark asked.

Gregory took a deep breath.

"Hey, shut up maybe?" Cassie told the duo, now standing up to block herself between them and Gregory.

"Yeah, like actually don't say that," Violet whispered to her friend.

"Dude, its fine, Greg came back! But the other one didn't.. awww."

Cassie took Gregory by his hand and stormed off. Gregory couldn't be more grateful for her. He was on the verge of crying until he felt his feet go up and his face hit the grass.

"Holy sh-"

Gregory bounced right back up, visibly in pain, but shoved Mark back. He stumbled, but laughed at the push.

"God, at least hit me like a guy."

And with that, Gregory practically threw himself at the kid who was older and bigger than him. But he didn't care about the odds. He was in danger, and he chose fight instead of flight. Students crowded around as Gregory started to zone out and not focus on his actions, and how much his body hurt, but just act. He was pulled apart by Cassie and Violet, with Gregory now noticing the crowd; some watching in shock and some instigating the fight. A teacher emerged through the crowd and pulled them apart like they were small dogs fighting over food.

Gregory didn't care that everyone was watching. He didn't care that the teacher was mad. But what he did care about, is that the principal would definitely call Vanessa.

--

"Is there anything you want to say, Gregory?" Mr. Raglan asked. Vanessa watched as her kid, the kid who just explained his side of the story and how he was attacked, had to apologize.

"..I'm sorry for what I did. It was irrational, and I only furthered the problem." Gregory said in tears. Cassie sat silently as her uncle stood behind her, who had arrived a few minutes after Vanessa.

"Its okay. I'm sorry for starting it." Mark replied dryly.

"..And I'm sorry for taking part in it." Violet admitted, staring at the ceiling.

The principal turned to face Cassie.

"Um.. I'm sorry for saying shut up." Cassie said to Mark, although unsure why she had to apologize.

Some tension had been lifted from the room. Not all tension, but some. Vanessa texted Freddy, telling him they'd be done in a few minutes. Vanessa and Gregory were asked to stay behind.

"Now Vanessa, what punishment do you think would be best suited for Gregory?"

Vanessa blanked.

"Uhh... Detention tomorrow, I'll excuse him for the rest of the day."

Mr. Raglan nodded and excused them. The two awkwardly left the school, avoiding everyone else and made their way to the car. Vanessa moved Freddy to the back seat letting Gregory sit in the front. They sat in silence for a bit.

"...Do you want some Wendy's?"

"Oh my god, yes please."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THAT WAS SO FUN omg ok sleepy time. thank you percy puhpandas,,, maybe i'll take a crack at these other ones later but this is good enough for now

[thorntopieces]

I am harnessing self control to avoid reading the entire series instead of doing school but I read the first two and jason isn't even a character I've ever been that attached to but this is going to be living in my head rent free I can already tell

you should probably be doing school you're right!

i am ... just going to put this under a read more because it got long and rambly. i'm entirely uncertain how much sense this actually makes, but hey maybe my passion shows through! /lh

content: ramble about jason grace as a character (majority pre-toa), jason grace with a complex dissociative disorder (did) and indications for him developing it, a few side notes about thalia

word count: 1403

i have not really read the trials of apollo, i know the main story beats and i will read it eventually

see here's the thing, jason's my favourite character (except nico and will because duh, we literally changed our legal name because of one of them). i do not understand why people don't like him or don't care about him, i really don't. he wasn't fleshed out as well and that's such a pity because it really does feel like he was created as a foil to percy's character (the unrestrained sea vs the order of the roman olympic court) and that was kind of it. he got a girlfriend because People Have Significant Others Right? and that was kind of his arc. i know it slightly develops in trials of apollo but we don't get the same kind of treatment with jason that percy had. i suppose that's reasonable because percy was The Protagonist for five whole books and jason kind of has to share the limelight with the rest of the seven as the inner main cast (adding onto that hedge, reyna and nico as part of the outer main cast in heroes of olympus)

but even with the rest of the seven it feels like we get more than we do from jason. hazel's backstory is fleshed out, we get to see frank's internal conflicts - the weight of his family history and lifeline, his insecurity and his trouble with the two aspects of his father constantly intruding on his mental space. for leo, i will admit it could have been better. but we see his guilt and insecurities and trauma - the class clown persona and flightiness. piper is treated ... okay, i think. obviously annabeth and percy were fleshed out well in the first five books and heroes of olympus does great at expanding even more on their characters and histories

jason is a character that really had so much potential and i feel like riordan really blew it. character has amnesia, saves part of the world, gets his memories back (or does he?) (and they're never really elaborated upon!) and uh. witnesses the eros/cupid thing and oh guess he's near-sighted. and he's the pontifex now good on him. and then [spoilers for the burning maze]. we don't really see more of him than that. his childhood was massively traumatic! i'm glad that the fandom at least has managed to acknowledge that and written about it a fair bit

i really don't think it's all too uncommon to be, as you said, "not all that attached to him as a character". with the way he was written you really have to put a bit of effort into really liking him and seeing him beyond how he's presented as the "perfect attractive level-headed all-american boy"

going vaguely back onto what brought us here in the first place: jason and why i believe he's got a trauma disorder beyond demigod standard (c)ptsd. specifically, did. i'll admit that i didn't even consider the thought before reading @/happyk44's did!jason series

looking at jason's (and thalia's) childhood, there's persistent child neglect (and in thalia's case - abuse) from infancy, leading thalia to mostly raise jason. it was beryl's neglect that led to jason accidentally eat a stapler as a kid. i think jason eating a stapler is something the fandom tends to see as he "haha look what a toddler did", adopting the tone thalia took when talking about it (i believe in the lost hero, shortly after their reunion?). i think it's a very upsetting and scary thought that jason was able to get his hands on a stapler and biting into it, ending up with a very painful injury. to be clear, this was not thalia's fault. it was not thalia's responsibility to prevent injury to her toddler brother

then obviously he was abandoned at the wolf house - abandonment is massively traumatic, especially for young children. while i don't believe jason had any form of secure attachment to his mother, he would have been massively unsettled and upset at losing thalia, considering she most likely did her best to raise him and to shield him from beryl's instability and alcholism/drug abuse. on thalia's side this was also highly traumatic

as a side note, i believe thalia developed bpd as a result of her childhood. this has partial canon basis, looking at her unstable mood and impulsivity (fitting criteria 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9 with canon basis, highly likely also fitting 3 and 7, unsure about 5)

the two or so years spent at the wolf house must have also been difficult. first of all, that's a toddler around a bunch of wolves. scary! /lh. any sign of weakness would lead to you getting killed, and while i do think being under juno's protection prevented lupa from actually killing jason if he was 'too weak', i think his time spent there was massively difficult. taking into consideration that most camp jupiter legion members spent at most a few weeks at the wolf house before being deemed worthy or unworthy and jason being there for two years ... i don't find it an impossibility at all that jason would develop more dissociated identity states to cope with the stress of his previous childhood situation and his life at the wolf house

second side note: i don't believe lupa to be some malicious entity out to hurt and torture children. she's a wolf and her purpose is to test if children were fit to join the roman legion at camp jupiter. weakness among wolves is not really an option and she would likely not take into consideration if the child is two or twelve years old

that's not even getting into the stress jason was exposed to at camp jupiter. first thing: joining the literal army at four years old. hello. a four-year old.

for comparison, some common developmental milestones for four-year-olds: speaking in complete sentences; ability to hold back-and-forth conversations; follow instructions with 3+ steps; developing the ability to distinguish between real and imaginary; getting dressed/undressed mostly independently; ability to run and climb; ability to start behaving appropriately in different locations (such as indoor voice for the library, but outdoor voice for the playground)

now imagine this in the army, which you just know will not take into consideration that he is itty bitty beyond making armour fitting him and possibly helping him cut his food in the mess hall. this would most definitely exacerbate dissociative tendencies, compartmentalising his trauma away in trauma/memory holders, protecting his psyche through protectors and possibly (actually, probably definitely) persecutors, and a stable, apparently perfect son of jupiter in the form of a host alter

it's an au i have barely developed but i've been doing some thinking. obviously jason would already have did by the time heroes of olympus occurred, caused by the neglect and time at the wolf house and solidified and worsened by the time in the army and the stress of being The Son of Jupiter. in my au, instead of having his memories stolen by juno, she tries to steal his memories but the stress of this ends up forcefully causing jason to split and forcefully suppressing all memories and other alters deep in his subconscious. this would be in line with him knowing nothing about himself except his name at the start of the lost hero and running entirely on muscle memory (such as flipping the coin, knowing how to fight, relying on his instincts for harnessing his powers). certain triggers would attempt to bring back other alters and memories, causing pain and disorientation making no sense to anyone - such as discovering his surname being grace in the zeus cabin with annabeth there. doing it this way would also help us explore a situation that arises in our system very very frequently: what do you do when multiple alters have the same name? because i think in this au, there would be the pre-hoo jason (host part) who has the body's name and the hoo jason (new host part) who both feel at least vaguely attached to their name. and they're so similar but different (and they end up being co-hosts)

that uh. yeah i think that's it. please feel free to ask clarifying questions! i'll tag it just a little bit, you never know, someone might like our half-incoherent ramblings /lh

[galaxyblast23]

𝕸𝖞 𝕾𝖚𝖓𝖘𝖍𝖎𝖓𝖊(𝕸𝖆𝖑𝖊 𝕬𝖓𝖓𝖆𝖇𝖊𝖙𝖍 𝖝 𝕽𝖊𝖆𝖉𝖊𝖗)

𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 1

Masterlist

Warnings: none

(Y/n)'s P.O.V

Look, we didn't want to be half-bloods.

If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: hop of the app now.

Believe whatever lie your parents told you about your birth and try to lead a normal life.

Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary, most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.

If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fake, great, read on.

I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.

But if you feel something stirring inside of you stop reading immediately.

You might be one us.

And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you, don't say I didn't warn you.

My name is (Y/n) (L/n). I'm twelve years old.

Until a few months ago, I was a boarding school student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.

Am I a troubled kid?

Yeah. You could say that.

Things really started going bad on the field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where we went to look at Greek and Roman stuff.

All the way into the trip I had to deal with Nancy Bobofit, the red haired girl who was hitting one of my best friends, Grover, in the back of the head with chunks of her peanut-butter-and-ketchup sandwich.

Grover was an easy target, he was scrawny and he tended to cry when he got frustrated.

He walked funny like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you, you should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.

"I'm going to kill her," my other friend Percy Jackson mumbled as he sat in between me and Grover.

"It's okay, I like peanut butter," he said trying to calm Percy down.

Nancy decided to throw more of her sandwich at Grover, which he avoided but Percy still got fired up, "that's it."

He started to get up, but I pulled him down to his seat, "Percy, we're already on probation," I reminded him.

"You know that we'll both get blamed if anything happens," I told him as the bus stopped.

....

Mr. Brunner was leading the tour with the math teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, who I'm sure is the devil.

"Will you shut up?" I heard Percy whisper yell suddenly.

I looked back at him as the whole group laughed and Mr. Brunner stopped to look at him, "Mr. Jackson, did you have a comment?" He asked.

His face was read, "no, sir..." He said. Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele.

"Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"

Percy and I looked at the carving, "that's Kronos eating his kids, right?" he said.

"Yes," Mr Brunner said, obviously not satisfied.

I had spaced off for a moment only to feel a hand on my shoulder, I looked over to see Grover.

"Come on (Y/n) we're going to eat lunch." I only nodded and smiled.

The rest of the class sat on the steps of the museum while Percy, Grover, and I were sitting at the edge of the fountain.

"Detention?" Grover asked. "Nah, not from Brunner," Percy said as I patted his back and gave him some of my oreos.

"Can I have your apple?" Grover asked me, making me toss it to him.

We all talked about classes and stuff we were excited to do when we get out for break.

Suddenly, Nancy Bobofit's half-eaten lunch ended up in Grover's lap, "oops," she cackled sarcastically.

It had happened all so fast at one moment Nancy and her ugly friends were standing in front of us and laughing and then Nancy flew into the fountain as we stood their in shock.

"Percy and (Y/n) pushed me!" As she said that Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us. "Now sweethearts-"

"We know" Percy said, "a month of erasing workbooks."

That was not the right thing to say.

"You two, come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.

"Wait, it was me! I pushed Nancy!" Grover said, trying to defend us.

"I don't think so Mr. Underwood, you're staying here."

"But-"

"You-will-stay-here," she said more sternly.

"It's alright, Grover," I said, Percy nodding in agreement.

After giving Nancy a 'I'll kill you later,' stare we followed Mrs. Dodds into an empty section.

Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed and a mean look on her face. "You've been causing us problems, you two," she growled.

"Yes, ma'am," I answered, feeling a deadly chill crawl up my back.

"Did you think you two could really get away with it?" She said with a sneer.

"We'll try harder, ma'am," Percy forced out.

Thunder shook the building, "we are not fools, you two," Mrs. Dodds said, it was only a matter of time before we found you, confess and you will suffer less pain."

Percy and I looked at each other in confusion and fear of what the teacher was saying.

"You're time is up."Then the weirdest thing yet happened, Mrs. Dodds' fingers stretched, turning into talons.

Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She was not human.

Before this math teacher could cut us into ribbons, Mr. Brunner wheeled in yelling something to Percy and throwing a ballpoint pen toward him.

As he caught it, the pen was no longer a pen but a bronze sword.

"Die sweethearts!" She dived towards us, I ducked down before there was silence, I looked up to see only ash, no Mr. Brunner, and Percy with the ballpoint pen.

"What just happened...." I asked as my voice shook.

"I'm not sure..." Percy said with wide eyes and tense stance.

"Let's go," Percy said grabbing my hand as we went outside, where it was now raining.

Grover was sitting by the fountain and Nancy was still soaking wet, surrounded by her ugly friends.

"I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt, you duds," Nancy sneered. "Who?"

"Our math teacher, who I hope made you eat it!" She screamed.

I looked at her with confusion. "Why are you speaking in rhymes?" I asked her.

"You freaks! Rhymes aren't what I speak!" She said before her eyes started freaking out in rhymes to her friends.

We had asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was and all he responded with was, 'who?'

"Not funny man," Percy said, "this is serious."

Thunder boomed overhead. Percy left to talk to Mr. Brunner as I watched from afar, and if I was being total honest, I was freaking out.

Percy came back with wide eyes, "Percy, what's wrong?" I asked. "No one knows who Mrs. Dodds is..."

[hoorayiread]

Percy Jackson Summer: The Battle of the Labyrinth

Whelp, Percy Jackson Summer is almost over, folks. It ain't even July! I know there's more than 5 books in this universe, and I am still enjoying them, but I can already tell I'm gonna need a break after The Last Olympian. I need to get back to my regular reading diet of horror and depression. But for now: review!

You know the drill, people, Percy's kicked out of another school thanks to monster attacks, and is sent on a quest that vaguely resembles a greek myth. In this case, its losely based on House of Leaves. Kidding, of course. Its Theseus and the Minotaur, but without the Minotaur, because Percy already did that. Anyways, Grover is in trouble, because no one believes him when he says he spoke to Pan, Percy has two potential girlfriends, and it turns out there's a big secret Greek maze under the entire continental United States. Kronos wants to use it to perform a bit of B&E, so our folks need to do some questin'!

The books continue to be a wonderful time. I have noticed that more of the myths getting referenced are ones I'm unfamiliar with. I'm completely okay with that, as these more obscure stories catch me off-guard and teach me new things. Tyson is back, love me some Tyson. Rachel is interesting, and Nico is emo. Charming, fun, et cetera, et cetera. Riordan doesn't strike me as a guy who likes to repeat himself, so these books are always filled with new ideas and action, but retain the same charm.

Do you remember how, in the last book's review, I complained about the lack of horse stabe cleaning? Guess what we got in this book.

WE GOT THAT GOOD POOP-CLEANING ACTION BABYYYYYYYYY!!!

Riordan knew. He knew he cheated me out of that premium horse cleaning content and he DELIVERED. He also had a Dionysus kid do some things at the end. My gods, he's reading my reviews and then time travelling to the early 2000's to rewrite his books. That's the only possible explanation!

[essayofthoughts]

📖

Okay, there's only two left and they're kind of interlinked so I'll do them as a 2for1.

But basically... Percy's family was canonically big? Not just that he had a lot of siblings, but that there was a vast extended family. They had cousins and cadet branches - some still extant even after the Briarwoods' attack! - and they likely had connections of various degrees of closeness to other families in the Parchwoods - such as the von Musel Klossowskis. There would have been families that would have likely been the ones Percy or his siblings would have been expected to marry into, to help unify Parchwood rulership and alliances, and there would have been families already related, who they knew and visited.

It says something, I think, that either none of these families challenged the Briarwoods claim on Whitestone, or asked for help ousting them. It suggests, in my opinion, that many of these families were variously:

Frightened into submission

Charmed into submission

Outright murdered for being troublesome

Stayed quiet to keep themselves safe.

But - these are the families which, with the main de Rolo family destroyed, as well as any of the (likely many! Historically noble families often housed not just the immediate nobles but their siblings and their siblings' kids, and their siblings' kids' kids) cousins in the castle had the first right of inheritance. They would also likely know what the lines of succession were and who had first right - and they would know it wasn't the Briarwoods.

It certainly gives little ground for any of them to challenge Percy and Cass in their reclaiming of Whitestone - in the end, these were the only two to do anything and even if Percy vanished and reappeared five years older, with white hair and questionable powers and Cass was held hostage and possibly brainwashed... they ended the occupation. The other families allowed it.

That said, I don't think it'd necessarily stop those cousins and cadet branches and related families from trying to variously start trouble or inveigle themselves into a better position.

Luckily, I think that's something that the de Rolo children were likely trained for.

Julius as eldest was likely intended to rule. Until such a time as either Julius married or Vesper herself married, Vesper was likely expected to assist in administration (sisters helping brothers with administrative duties until they had a spouse to do so was not uncommon historically). And even beyond that, they likely lived with a chunk of extended family, and they all would likely have had the implications of those relations and various social standings drilled in from a young age - I doubt it was something most of them even had to think about, it was just how things were.

I do think, however, that after the heir (Julius), the spare (Vesper - this is Exandria with a greater degree of gender equality, Vesper was likely in line to inherit!), and the spare to the spare (Percy), I think the younger children were given a fair degree of freedom to be who they wanted. There was likely the expectation of marrying well and not shaming the family with foolishness or wasteful pasttimes like gambling, but I imagine that...

Well, Percy was allowed to play around with his studies and in his workshop. He's spare to the spare, and both heir and spare have grown to adulthood. Had the Briarwoods not happened he would have likely been entirely superfluous within ten years, assuming both Julius and Vesper married and produced children (and I imagine he would rather have liked being entirely superfluous). Given that example, I think that the children were expected to do well and were likely encouraged towards useful pasttimes - perhaps a connection with the Zenith, because of Pelor as Whitestone's patron god, perhaps social connection to the Noble Houses of Whitestone (I very much imagine Whitney as being the kind of person who would have grown into sewing circles and tea parties and wrangling people in this kind of subtle, soft-power way), charitable causes, accounting, architecture, agricultural overseeing even - things that would help Whitestone and thus the family.

Even Percy's tinkering could count as that - technological developments, clocks as tricky, expensive and useful items that would fetch a good sum, the fact that his tinkering could mean the family could make high-value gifts themselves instead of commissioning them. While a more... outside option, it would still be one - being scholarly still reflects well on the family.

Anyway - this has rather gone on long enough. But in short: I think the de Rolo extended family presents a lot of interesting, messy dynamics you just don't see in a lot of modern, more nuclear family structures, and the fact that a lot of this would have been quite immediate to the family - cousins living in the castle - means a lot of these things would probably be unspoken facts of the de Rolos lives, and in turn, unspoken influences on the people they would have and in two cases did become.

send in “📓” and I’ll roll a d10 and ramble some worldbuilding thoughts

[daedalusdavinci]

spell homestuck

GOD. THIS IS SO MUCH LONGER THAN TWO FACE. i typed too much and theres too many qs so under the cut it goes

H - What is your favorite source text for fandom stuff (e.g., TV shows, movies, books, anime, Western animation, etc.)?

books!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! or....... i guess comics, these days, but i HATE READING COMICS they juST HAVE MORE COMPELLING FANDOMS. book fandoms are PUNY nad everyone is STUPID. youd think actual literary fandoms would have reading comprehension and understanding of literary critique but no!!!!!!!!!!!!! its literally my eternal fuckign struggle. somehow comic fandoms hit the perfect medium between compelling, readable content and the enthusiasm of cartoon fans without the childishness of cartoon fans

O - Choose a song at random. Which ship or character does it remind you of?

this isnt really a thing i do. the only time i associate characters w songs is my own ocs. barbies theme is miltons tower from the what remains of edith finch soundtrack!

M - Name a character that you’d like to have for a friend.

i have also never really been one to project myself into stories. its just not how i consume media. i think sollux and rose already closely resemble the kinds of friends i make, so maybe them?

E - Have you added anything cracky/hilarious to your fandom? If so, what?

(freddy fazbear vc) vanessa.... ive done things, im not proud of.

i dont even know if i want to answer this question bc its so fucking humiliating LKJSNDLFSDNFSDF the truth is yes. i am solely responsible for. a lot. particularly in the pjo fandom. i created several crackships ground up all on my own way back in 2014 and developed a following for them and i. dont wantto tell you what those ships were. LSKJDFNSLDJNSDFSDDF ive also pioneered many ship tags for other fandoms and i ship a lot of rarepairs and stuff but i dont think im RESPONSIBLE for them?? in that some ppl already were into them/talking abotu them or tht theyre still not popular (augh. to the ones that became popular) but i AM liTERALLY responsible for some crack shit in the pjo fandom and its. it haunts me sometimes. i dont want to talk about it. IF YOU REMEMBER WHAT I DID NO YOU DONT

S - Show us an example of your personal headcanon (prompts optional but encouraged)

this is so vague. my headcanons are shifting and nebulous and aus are my constant companion in everything, but uhhhhhhghhusjkdjnsdg i think. roxy writes the same way dave draws comics. its extremely memey and meta and self aware and largely just for the personal lolz, and were all doing her a disservice by pretending her writing looks like roses, when in reality dirk is probably the one whod make comics the way rose makes books (which is probably why he doesnt make comics). its more of that thing where roxy and dave are the same and rose and dirk are the same ykwim. well YOU dont corvus but im sure someone else does

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending?

jason takes after bruce in terms of like. adopting entirely too many kids. he broods

U - Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites.

harvey is a heartwrenching character when written well, with a complicated view of morality, heartbreaking ties to our main hero, and a lot of internal conflict. something about such a hopeful character deadset on making a different in the system becoming a victim of it, and the potential he has as a vehicle for critiquing the law.

percy is my favorite character from pjo bc it was the very first time in my life i ever read a book and saw myself in it. hes aggressive, impulsive, and rebellious, he fidgets and has a hard time standing still, he acts on emotion without always thinking it through, he gets in trouble in school and hands his mom a murder weapon to kill his stepdad, hes just... hes a lot of the things ive always gotten in trouble for, things i couldnt help being, and hes a hero. he means everything to me.

vriska, i will maintain until the day i die, is one of the best homestuck characters- maybe just characters?- ever written. shes dramatic, shes impulsive, shes manipulative and mean and creative, and shes just so messy about it. shes a mean girl in a way that feels real, where her trauma impacts and shapes her as a person, and shes complex, with warring wants, and people she cares about, and dreams, and shes so messy. shes rough and rude and shes doing what SHE wants to, being a version of herself that feels right to HER, rather than some caricature of the hot badass evil lady. shes thirteen!! and she FEELS thirteen. shes a thirteen year old weird girl who is kind of an asshole, and she means literally fucking everything to me. shes a pirate!!!!! shes a swashbuckling badass dressing up in her larping outfit and yelling at her friends on the playground to swab the deck and she is the bestest ever, the end.

i didnt mean for each one of these to be longer than the last but here we are.

C - A ship you have never liked and probably never will.

i hate jdedave peace and love it just feels weird as hell to me. dave, for the most part, is hyper respectful of other peoples choices and boundaries but when it comes to jade hes always trying to mke choices for her, to protect her, and it gets to the point where even jade points out how much it bugs her. jades crush on dave also seems to come from a place of misunderstanding to me, admiring a lot of the parts of himself that he exaggerates and pretends to care about as a result of trauma. it always felt like a kid crush that they shouldve grown out of with time. dave also just sort of seems to... go along with whatever romantic relationships people push him into at that age, rolling with whoever flirts with him jsut bc hes trying to maintain the image of a player, so its really hard to take him seriously any time he hits on someone?

that is just my interpretation of it tho

K - What character has your favorite development arc/the best development arc?

well. i havent finished my reread of homestuck, so that feels difficult to comment on just yet, bc im sure ill have a different opinion when i do finish it. no one in dc gets character arc bc theyre all just undone immediately, so thats like. yeah. and in pjo the arcs are pretty weak bc 1) kids books and 2) RICK UNDOES THEM ALL. AUGH. regardless of all of this, i am going to say jason grace. he had a lot of development in like the last two hoo books, or maybe just like.... hints of how he couldve developed? promise? which rick immediately set fire to in toa when he killed him, but fUCKING WHATEVER. UGH.

anyway actually tho eleanor from the good place. bisexual icon. queen. probably one of the best character arcs of all time. the episode w her mom has some of the most powerful fucking dialogue ever and i think about it. all the time. i should rewatch the good place.....

[rightpastnowhere]

annnnnd finally, the last of the headcanons for @essayofthoughts !! sorry it’s taken five years lol

gwendolyn de rolo

sexuality headcanon: idk yet!! we only know her as a baby and i don’t really ever get vibes from kiddos. 

favorite ship(s): again!! idk!! we haven’t seen much of her other than that she’s precious, and idk who the kids her age are??? idk

brotp: i love the idea that she and vax ii are like,,, best friends. they seem to be the closest in age, so i imagine they’d grow up a bit closer than they are to the rest of the siblings. they seem to be the gentlest of the kiddos just from their demeanor in the portrait, so i imagine they’d just bond over being similar?? idk. i also think vesper is fiercely protective of gwen. she doesn’t face too much adversity - vex and percy and cass, too, make sure of that - but there’s a couple of assholes here and there, moreso when they travel. and vesper will just stick to gwen’s side - she’s got a lil bit of clout as the “angel-blessed de rolo”, and uses it to be more persuasive, or just as intimidation. no one gets to fuck with her baby siblings. 

notp: don’t ship her with her siblings?? i guess???? again, shipping opinions usually require more content for me to make

happy headcanon: she has a dream for a while as a kid of being a skyship pirate. this is after vex takes her up on the broom (it’s a tradition for the kids, they fly very slowly and very safely, percy designs a special seat for them), and takes gwen to see the skyship port that i think whitestone has idk (if not then they just see a skyship at some point. work with me here). and gwen, who’s already been on the cusp of a pirate phase, decides she wants to fly forever. and she wants to be a pirate because they sound so cool!!! but don’t worry, she’s gonna be a good pirate. the bestest pirate ever. she’s gonna go help people!! cause that’s what good pirates do!!! (leona tries to cut in that that’s not what pirates do but vesper elbows her in the ribs.) after that she forces her siblings to play sky pirates with her, all the time. no one can say no to her. trinket is the skyship.

angsty headcanon: she’s a good kid by nature, but as she grows older she gets this... pressure to be good, to stay good. never from her parents, not directly, although their offhanded comments on her being such an angel compared to their siblings factor in a little, so unintentionally. but after being the “sweet” one for so long, after hearing compliments and praise from tutors and workers in the castle and family friends, it sort of becomes... ingrained in her that she’s “the good kid”. she’s afraid to get into trouble or mischief, not only because of consequences, but this fear that she’ll be acting out of place. and as her siblings grow up and start having their own issues - vesper with some separation anxiety (born in the midst of all of that trauma, and then dalen’s closet), the twins’ self esteem issues, vax’s anxieties (these are all headcanons btw), she feels pressured to not bring up her own issues. after all, she’s the good kid. she’s the easy kid. she’s supposed to balance out her siblings, right? so she stays out of trouble while her siblings cause her parents stress. she keeps quiet about her own issues so she’s not adding to their burdens. they’re not that bad, anyway. they’re not as bad. right?

random headcanon: her tail!! is incredibly expressive!!! much more so than typical tieflings. because her family is the Fucking Best and whitestone doesn’t tolerate intolerance, she’s never felt pressured to repress the tiefling aspects of herself. so her tail waves back and forth when she’s happy, thrashes low to the ground when she’s angry, and the tip will kind of twitch back and forth like a little pendulum when she’s antsy or excited but trying not to be too expressive about it, kind of like bouncing on your toes. she ALSO incorporates it into hugs all the time, but especially when someone is feeling extra sad or insecure. it’s a little lifeline of support!! and love!!! and when she’s feeling anxious herself, she’ll wrap it around arms or legs, or around her own wrists, and people always use it as a sign to give her big hugs or ask what’s wrong.

general opinion: WHEN I SAW HER IN THE DE ROLO PORTRAIT MY FATE WAS SEALED. I LOVE HER SO MUCH AND I WILL LOVE HER UNTIL THE END OF DAYS

i can’t believe it. everyone who wrote a tiefling baby rolo wins, actually, congrats to all of you. AND SHE’S THE SWEETEST!! SHE’S THE BABY!! she gets everything she wants. her hand might be wrapped around her dad’s finger, but it’s percy who’s wrapped around her finger. he couldn’t be happier. i also think it’s good that she’s the baby - percy is probably far enough removed from All That Shit that he can only see gwen as a blessing. he probably actually laughs about, because when vox machina comes to see her, they all just turn to slowly look at percy. and he fucking loses it. but regardless, gwen is just a sign that, despite all of his past mistakes, he’s alive. he’s alive and he has a family, and those past mistakes very well may be the reason he’s gotten to this point in his life. and he wouldn’t trade his life, or any of his children, for the world.

to summarize: holy shit i love gwendolyn de rolo

[pink-chevalier]

💥💢🥞🍟☕️🍁🙈🌌👑✂️📎❄️🌟☄️❤️

Hey, anon! Thank you for sending me all these emojis, and I hope you are okay with that. I will answer this for each family member as best as I can.

💥 COLLISON - what emotions do they have trouble dealing with? Simon has difficulty expressing his feelings because he doesn't know how to express them well.

💢 ANGER - what are some habits they have that will take some getting used to? Ophelia has the bad habit of making everything she says sound sarcastic and when she tries to be genuine with other people it still comes across like she's being a bitch.

🥞 PANCAKE - what is their comfort breakfast? Percy loves a big ass bowl of captains crunch.

🍟 FRIES - do they order food often? or they prefer to cook their own food? Pandora enjoys cooking because she knows it's healthier but she would love to just order out more.

☕️ HOT BEVERAGE - do they prefer hot or cold drinks? what is their favourite drink? Zaxton likes hot drinks more. He enjoys drinking tea and his favorite one is Oolong tea.

🍁 MAPLE LEAF - what is their favourite season? why? Simon's favorite season is winter. He loves when it snows and he can build a snowman.

🙈 SEE-NO-EVIL - whats a side of your oc that they don't want to show other people? Zaxton doesn't like his werewolf side to show too much. His kids and wife have seen it but anyone else he won't reveal it to.

🌌 MILKY WAY - what was the inspiration behind your oc? what was the first thing you decided about them? For Ophelia, I decided that I wanted her to have vitiligo like her father and these really nice eyes that have a touch of yellow in them. Zaxton was because I wanted to explore a werewolf storyline, but that whole shit got shut down because my save got deleted. I wanted Simon to have heterochromia because it's been a while since my sims have that.

👑 CROWN - what does your oc want to be remembered as? why? Percy hopes one day to create a comic book and he wants to be known as like the greatest comic book artist that's ever lived.

✂️ SCISSORS - what is the "last straw" for them to cut someone out of their life? how easily do they let go of people? It's extremely easy for Pandora. She can handle people talking all the shit they want about her, but never talk about her family even her foster children.

❄️ SNOWFLAKE - do people consider them cold? if so, what made them this way? People might consider Simon to be cold. He’s a very sweet and caring person but being stuck in a system that feels like it’s made to bring him down made him that way.

🌟 GLOWING STAR - what do they think about when they look at the night sky? is there someone they want to star gaze with? As deep of a topic as this might be Pandora sometimes wonders about life after death or if there is more out there. Ophelia and Pandora both used to stare gaze together, but it stopped as Ophelia started getting her own friends and life. She hopes to do that again with her daughter.

☄️ COMET - what do people assume about them? are they right? That Ophelia's pretty damn mean. She assumes it's because of her resting bitch face.

❤️ RED HEART - their love language(s)? Zaxton is physical touch. He loves holding hands, giving hugs, kisses for his wife, and pecks on the cheek for his children. Pandora is quality time she loves to spend as much time as possible with the people she cares about the most. Ophelia loves doing gifts usually these are done with a thought in mind but sometimes it’s simple I think they’ll like this. Percy is sort of like his dad and a bit of compliment and reassurance.

[jaketoria4ever]

Introduction

Now, I'm the sorta person who always acts drunk off their ass but will slave their asses off for a teeny tiny post because what if it offends someone?

TW: Mention of mental disorders

I have a few mental disorders, that I have embraced but still struggle with.

Some things I live by -> Offending a person's gender, sexuality or belief is not cool. If you don't agree with them, advocate/preach your views. Don't degrade the other party.

Mind your own business.

Just because I'm crazy, doesn't mean I can't feel. Hell, I probably feel even more than you do!

That being said, I have a li'l trouble comprehending (not understand; comprehending) human emotion.

I don't mind swearing (heaven knows I swear enough for my entire household of two kids, two adults).

REMEMBER THERE'S A HUMAN WITH FEELING S BEHIND THE COMPUTER!

I am neurodivergent, so I appreciate any help/advice I can get. Don't like, Don't read.

Now, onto my fandoms! :-:-:

Listed in descending order of liking/knowledge *:*:*:*

Harry Potter -> Read every book a bajillion times, seen all the movies, love them both since I was 6! Recently joined the fandom, going to see the musical and puppet show, sadly not rich enough to have merch, although each year on my b'day, my parents gift me some merch! Hyped for the series!!! (love you HBO)

Percy Jackson -> Read all the books, seen the movie and the show. My opinion on the TV adaptations? They're both spinoffs. Not book accurate, but I don't care.

Phineas and Ferb -> Who knew a kids show was so freaking deep? PETITION TO MAKE PNF THE TUMBLR OFFICIAL SHOW AND PERRY OR DOOF OUR MASCOT!

Greek Mythology -> Personally speaking, I haven't read any books on this apart from PJO, nope, no Lore Olympus or Song of Achilles, but I have been an ardent fan of any mythology since birth because I am the oldest grandchild of a priest.

Disney -> TBH, I haven't seen much. Mulan, Encanto, Finding Nemo, Frozen, Tarzan, Tangled (I freaking love the series), The Classics, The Little Mermaid. I love the above stated and probably haven't watched anything else. (I relate to Mirabel, Elsa, Ariel, Mulan and Rapunzel on a spiritual level.)

The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Selection, Shadow hunters -> I'm there for the angst.

Hindu, Egyptian and Nordic Mythology.

Disney Channel Shows -> Austin and Ally's songs are what drive me.

There's more, but I'll add 'em as I think of 'em.

☆*: .｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:*☆☆*: .｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:*☆☆*: .｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:*☆

** Don't know if you've noticed but I'm also the sorta person who is a stickler for grammar. Mistake in my typing? Fix that right now or you won't get you hourly glass of water. A red squiggly line? *zooms past so fast I end up five seconds early.* **

** I am pretty sure I have OCD, but I'm not diagnosed yet, so... **

** I am really low on general knowledge because, y'know strict Asian parents and all, so forgive for being naive.**\

This is the pan-sexual bi-romantic flag. As of now, this is my sexuality and romantic preference respectively.

Til a few months ago, I though I was an ally and a cishetallo woman.

I'm still cis-gendered and allo, which I'm sure won't be changing soom but, y'know, life's a roller coaster.

Fall is my favorite season. I was born in Autumn, late September, plus I believe that Spring represents rebirth, Summer is very hot and Winter is very cold. Fall is like the in between, in my perspective.

[tagthescullion]

Ancestors

Fandom(s): Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Rating: General Audiences

Summary: Bianca and Nico's sixth sense starts showing, Maria's not amused

AO3 link

Mimmo - Bassi's Recipe

Chapter Three: Salvatore's Grandchildren

The Secondo Capo Regia Marina Agostino Bernardi hated wakes and funerals. Nothing could make him more uncomfortable than sitting down with the family of a recently deceased person weeping for somebody they had seen twice a year at best.

Old spinsters, rich great uncles, cousins many times removed… all of them laid peacefully to rest by a herd of unwillingly involved relatives.

Agostino generally avoided these events like the plague, but unfortunately for him this time there was no way out. 

A close friend of his had just lost his mother-in-law. Agostino could have thrown some excuse, apologised profusely, and spent his afternoon fishing with his colleagues. The truth was, however, that the Marchese Salvatore di Angelo had been there for every single one of Agostino’s family’s wakes and refusing would seem terribly unkind on his behalf. 

There was another reason Agostino didn’t quite enjoy the prospect, and it was Salvatore’s —frankly bizarre— family. 

For a person of Salvatore’s position, rumours were unavoidable. If it wasn’t his short engagement, it had been his wife’s troubles giving him sons, or his suffragist oldest daughter being seen at a protest, or his reluctance to follow the current government as it was expected of him. 

But nothing, nothing, Salvatore had ever done, had made his family the spotlight of society’s villainous rumours such as his youngest daughter’s elopement and subsequent birth to not one but two children with the mysterious husband nobody seemed to know.

Whether the girl had actually married her paramour was dubious at best. Some even said the man had already been married abroad. The children used their mother’s surnames under the excuse that Salvatore wouldn’t have his grandson and heir be called an unknown, foreign name. 

Whatever the case, Agostino paid no heed to such nonsense. If his friend said his daughter was married, then so be it. If his friend wanted his grandchildren to carry his family name, he saw no problem with that at all. 

No. What really bothered the Secondo Capo wasn’t the children’s names or background but the children themselves. 

He had seen them on several occasions. At first glance, they were perfectly normal children, brought up in a perfectly normal environment, following perfectly normal rules imposed by their perfectly normal mother and grandparents. 

But first impressions seldom told the truth. 

Those children were strange. 

Throughout the years, Agostino had experienced strange occurrences around those kids: shadows followed them, they spoke to thin air, they would stare at the most mundane creatures with fear. Hell, Agostino was sure he’d heard them muttering in a language that had sounded like outdated Greek.

It made him shudder to think about it.

Despite his misgivings, Agostino had promised his friend he’d attend the wake, and the Bernardi family always kept their word.

It was a cloudy morning in Cessalto, but the grey overcast sky didn’t look like it would bring rain. 

A humid summer had made way to a cold spring in the North and by the time he made it to Salvatore’s home, Agostino’s hands were stiff with cold.

Luckily, his friend had spared no expense in heating. The inside of the 17th century home was warm enough to make Agostino regret the extra undershirt he’d decided to wear. 

Quite a few people were wandering around already; greeting acquaintances and, most likely, gossiping about whatever poor unfortunate soul had given them anything to criticise. 

Agostino spotted Salvatore by the window, speaking softly to his wife, Beatrice. When he saw Agostino watching, he waved feebly. 

Getting closer to them, Agostino said: “I’m terribly sorry about your loss.”

He was speaking to both of them, but his attention was on the marchesa, who was, after all, the one whose mother had passed.

She smiled insincerely and thanked him for being there. Agostino couldn’t fault her indifference to his sentiment. At his mother’s funeral, he’d been inconsolable, he wouldn’t have cared if the king himself had spoken to him. 

“Mia cara,” said Salvatore, putting a hand on his wife’s arm. “The Sartoris are here.”

Beatrice gave Agostino another weak smile, and left to greet the newcomers. 

“It’s a difficult time,” Salvatore explained. “Her brother and her were terribly fond of their mother… and it was rather sudden, too.”

Agostino wasn’t all that sure. He’d heard the woman was ill. But, he supposed, illnesses could hit faster than expected. 

“Of course,” he said anyway. “How are your girls handling it?”

Salvatore shrugged. “Hardly girls anymore… Eleonora will arrive this afternoon. Her flight from Berlin was delayed because of the weather. And Maria—”

“Nonno!”

A small person dodged past Agostino, and slammed into Salvatore with the force of a bullet.

“Niccolino!” His friend gave his grandson a tight hug. “There you are!”

Agostino forced his face to remain casual. The little devils had arrived then.

He heard Maria’s voice calling for her son. She appeared to his right, holding the hand of her daughter, who looked to be around 7 or 8.

“Topolino, ti ho detto che no—!” She stopped when she saw Agostino. “Secondo Capo Bernardi, how kind of you to be here.”

Maria di Angelo looked a lot like her father. Her dark hair was spotlessly coiffed, she had the same deep brown eyes, and there was a certain air of authority she shared with Salvatore. 

Today she looked upset, though. Red rimmed her eyes and she seemed exhausted. 

Agostino nodded at the young woman. 

Salvatore must’ve seen something in her expression that Agostino ignored because he held his daughter’s arm softly and told his friend: “Will you excuse us a moment, Agostino?”

Agostino stepped back to give them some privacy. He looked around to find somebody he could entertain himself with.

To his chagrin, in front of him stood the two little children. 

Niccolò and Bianca di Angelo were studying him curiously. 

“Who are you?” Asked the boy. 

“Didn’t you hear, silly? He’s a Secondo Capo.” The girl rolled her eyes. 

Agostino could see that meant absolutely nothing to the boy, who kept staring unabashedly at him. 

“I’m in the navy,” Agostino explained. “I work on a ship.”

Niccolò grinned. “Like a pirate?”

Agostino frowned. “Not at all! Pirates are lawless.”

“The navy kills pirates, Nico,” Bianca scoffed. Turning to Agostino she added: “He’s always wanted to be a pirate, which is dumb because ships make him dizzy.”

“That’s rather unfortunate.” Agostino said as the boy vehemently denied such accusations. 

He was mildly disturbed by the strength of the girl’s gaze. Her eyes were darker than her brother’s, and had an ethereal air to them. But she was only a child, so Agostino held her stare until she looked away.

He wasn’t sure what else to say when their conversation faded into silence, so he repeated: “I’m terribly sorry for your loss.”

The girl shrugged. “We didn’t know mamma’s nonna very well.”

“But mamma’s so upset!” Niccolò told her sister with wide eyes. “Her nonna must’ve been very nice before she met us.”

“She didn’t want to meet us.” Said Bianca. Agostino noticed a trace of resentment in the girl’s voice. “She only did when our nonna insisted.”

Niccolò threw a glance behind Agostino. The Secondo Capo didn’t want to pry, but he dared a glimpse too.

Salvatore had Maria in a tight hug. Her face was hidden in her father’s shoulder, Agostino didn’t keep his gaze on them long enough to make out whether she was crying or not but her distress was obvious.

“Why don’t you go with your mother?” Agostino suggested. “Tell her you’re sorry and whatnot.”

“She doesn’t like us to see her cry,” said Bianca. “She thinks we’ll think less of her if we do.”

Agostino prayed he could disappear. How on Earth did one speak with children? His own hadn’t been this demanding, had they? Admittedly, he hadn’t been around too much when they were young.

“It sounds silly, really.” Niccolò sighed. “But Bianca’s right.”

“Hmm—” Agostino bit the inside of his cheek. He scanned the room desperately. There, by the door, stood a friend from school. “Oh, look! I see an old acquaintance. If you don’t mind, children…?”

But they had run off. He gave the room a once-over but he couldn’t see where they’d gone. 

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

The wake took its time. Salvatore was an influential man, and many people wanted to look good in front of him, making the place much fuller than Agostino had expected. 

Food was served, a priest read a passage the dead woman had apparently been fond of, and everyone took turns to get close to the open casket in the parlour to pay respects. 

Agostino was spooked by corpses so he opted for a less personal approach. He sent his prayers from the safety of the sitting room, and apologised to the dead woman for not breathing too close to her departed earthly body. 

The crowd dimmed as the morning turned into afternoon, with only family and close friends remaining by the time the clock struck two.

Agostino sat with Salvatore, his wife, and Beatrice’s brother —il Conte Carminati—, chatting about whether Chamberlain would declare war on Germany or not.

“He’s strongly against it,” said Beatrice. “My sister-in-law says the Brits are rather divided on the matter. They don’t want another war—” Agostino remembered the marchesa and the conte’s older brother had died in the Great War, fighting in the British Army for he had married an English woman. “But at the same time, they can’t help but feel Czechoslovakia's situation is unfair.”

“But another war so soon…” Conte Carminati shuddered. “Great nations such as Great Britain or Germany wouldn’t go to war over a country as insignificant as Czechoslovakia.”

“They would if they wanted a war,” Salvatore commented. “Why do you think Germany’s been building an army for? Protection? Only a fool would believe Hitler’s objectives are peaceful.”

Agostino felt the tension Salvatore’s words caused. Adolf Hitler was on good terms with the Duce. If Germany went to war, Italy would follow soon after, no doubt.

Agostino raised his glance just in time to catch Maria and her two children walking to the parlour. Through the glass doors he saw Maria wipe a tear off her face.

The two kids shared a look. 

The Secondo Capo returned to the conversation. He told the group about the intranquility in the Regia Marina. Everybody was half-expecting a war by this point, as Salvatore had explained. 

As Beatrice’s brother spoke of the Regia Aeronautica and their own restlessness, Agostino saw Maria exit the parlour, minus her two blessings.

He looked through the glass, studying the children talking between themselves, heads together.

Niccolò shook his head, clearly worried. Bianca made an exasperated gesture. Whatever she was saying, it looked as if she was trying to convince her brother of something.

The boy gave what must’ve been a loud sigh, muted by the glass doors, and nodded. 

Bianca put her hands on the edge of the casket and leaned onto it. Agostino hoped she didn’t put too much pressure onto one side. He wasn’t sure how strong children were, but if the casket tumbled and the corpse fell out he might scream.

What happened was much, much worse. 

For a minute Agostino was distracted by the conversation again. There were talks about a meeting in Munich between the European leaders. Or some of them, at the very least. Salvatore was saying, his tone a tad too loud to be casual, that not inviting representatives of all the countries involved was as bad as straight-up declaring war.

Agostino’s eyes froze as he stared into the parlour.

One of the children was sitting in the casket. Not on, in.

Except… except it was too tall to be one of the kids.

“...absolute madness!” Salvatore exclaimed.

“It is…” Agostino whispered.

Salvatore must’ve thought he was being sarcastic. With a frown he said “It’s not a joke, you know? The Great War was supposed to solve all this petty nonsense—”

But he’d seen Agostino’s face: pale, eyes wide and unmoving, staring at…

“Ma che caz—?” 

Salvatore had turned towards the parlour. 

There, walking hand in hand with Salvatore’s granddaughter was his departed mother-in-law.

The old woman’s eyes were open, glassy, and unfocused. Her skin had a blue tint, dark spots marked her bare arms below the edge of her dress. 

Beatrice screamed. 

Il Conte Carminati fainted, slipping from the couch and falling to the floor.

The dead woman kept approaching.

Bianca sat the corpse… was it a corpse? Oddio, Agostino thought his heart couldn’t beat any louder. 

Bianca sat her great-grandmother on an armchair. “Where’s mamma?”

When none of the adults replied, Niccolò said: “I told you they would be scared.”

“What’s happening?” Asked Beatrice weakly. “What have you done to my mother?!”

“Mamma was so sad,” Bianca replied. “I thought she might be happier if she could speak with her nonna again. Come on, Nico, go fetch mamma, will you?”

Niccolò sighed. “It’s your idea, you go fetch her.”

Agostino didn’t care who found Maria, he just wanted to leave this madhouse, but he was frozen to the spot by fear. 

As the girl left, muttering under her breath about how lazy her brother was, Agostino looked around.

Beatrice looked like she might follow her brother’s example and pass out at any moment.

The conte was still out. 

Salvatore looked shocked, but to Agostino’s chagrin, he didn’t appear quite as surprised as he should be.

“Why—? How did you do this?” Salvatore asked his grandson. 

“It was Bianca!” Niccolò said, pointing at the door his sister had left through. “She can do this with cats and dogs too!”

He was obviously taken with his sister’s unholy powers. He looked very proud.

Salvatore studied his companions. Agostino wondered if this was some sort of tasteless elaborate joke. 

Niccolò turned to the corpse. “I’m wearing that tie you gave me for my birthday, did you notice? Mamma said it would be nice even if you don’t like us. I think it’s too tight around my neck…”

“Oh, good God!”

Maria di Angelo had arrived.

Niccolò startled. “Mamma, guarda! Bianca made your grandmother wake up!”

Maria looked horrified, but not at all astonished. 

“You don’t have to be sad anymore!” Bianca added, appearing on her mother’s side. 

Maria’s eyes went to her father, then to the rest of them. Then returned to her children.

“Put her back!”

Bianca huffed. “No! She just woke up, she doesn’t want to go back into the box!”

“It’s a casket,” Maria corrected Bianca. “And she belongs there, topolina. She’s dead!”

Bianca’s head dropped. “Mi dispiace, mamma. I thought it would make you happy to have her back again.”

Maria sighed. She held Bianca’s face in her hands softly. 

“Topolina, I appreciate the gesture,” she said. “I really do. But you mustn’t disturb the nature of death. Mia nonna she… she passed away. That’s sad, but it’s okay. She’s at peace now, but if you—” her eyes went to the dead woman sitting on her father’s armchair. “If you awaken her, she won’t be at peace anymore. She’ll be sad because she doesn’t belong with the living.”

Bianca nodded.

Agostino thought that all sounded rational and well-put, but there was still a bloody corpse amidst them. An actual moving dead body. He controlled his breath so it wouldn’t sound too shallow.

The little boy seemed to think around those lines too, for he said: “So… what do we do now?”

Maria turned towards him, then towards Bianca. “You can… make her go to sleep again, can’t you?”

“I don’t know,” the girl shrugged.

Agostino felt lightheaded. 

“Merda,” Salvatore muttered.

His wife made an offended expression. “There’s no need to be inappropriate, Totò!”

He stared at her. “There’s a resuscitated person in our sitting room, mia cara. How exactly am I supposed to react?”

She raised her shoulders dismissively. “Without foul language.”

Agostino leaned back heavily on his couch. He wanted to close his eyes and take a deep breath, but he refused to lose sight of the dead woman.

Salvatore had a point. How were they supposed to react?

Agostino thought hyperventilating was appropriate, but it required him to force oxygen into his lungs, a task proving rather difficult. 

“If Jesus could come back, why can’t mamma’s nonna?” Niccolò inquired.

“My mother isn’t God’s child, Nico,” said his grandmother. 

“Of course not,” Maria rolled her eyes. “Jesus was a lot less judgemental.” 

Agostino felt a chill go down his back.

Maria looked behind him, and for a fraction of a second, Agostino feared there were more reanimated dead relatives in the room, but luckily, she seemed relieved.

“Thank God,” she sighed.

“Not quite.”

Agostino turned sharply towards the new voice.

There was another man with them, but he seemed perfectly alive. Tall, pale, well-dressed in a suit so black it seemed to absorb the light of the room.

Agostino wasn’t easily cowed. He spent most of his time with powerful people. His job demanded he interacted regularly with men who could make him and his whole family disappear if he said the wrong thing, or was heard by the wrong person. 

All the same, this man gave him goosebumps. 

He wasn’t sure if it was the sudden drop in temperature, or the man’s general poise and appearance, but whoever he was, it was clear he wasn’t somebody to mess around with.

“You know what I meant,” Maria said. “A little help would be appreciated. This is your fault.”

The man appeared perplexed. “My fault?”

Maria didn’t look impressed. She didn’t look afraid, or even worried. Behind her exasperated expression, which still held a trace of the unease she’d felt, there was a note of fondness.

Agostino appraised the man properly.

His dark eyes were intense. An intensity Agostino had noticed on the youngest di Angelo girl mere hours ago.

Was this…? Was this the children’s father?

For a second, curiosity clouded his self-preservation and fear. His wife would be so ridiculously jealous that he had met Maria di Angelo’s former husband —or former lover, whoever he was—.

Salvatore’s stance confirmed his suspicions. 

His old friend was rigid. His arms tightly crossed over his chest, and a cold, impassive façade on his face —not an easy feat, with your dead mother-in-law sitting quietly in your sitting room—.

“Somehow,” said Salvatore. “I don’t doubt it is.”

His wife put a hand on his arm. She threw Salvatore a warning look, and turning towards the man, she asked: “Can you fix this? Please?”

The man tilted his head and looked at the children. Niccolò was beaming at the sight of his father, oblivious to the tense atmosphere of the room. Bianca looked sheepish.

“Mi dispiace, papà,” she muttered.

The man sighed. He walked towards the children and knelt by their side, undisturbed by the corpse less than a metre away.

“I know,” the man told her in a soft voice. He brushed her cheek with his hand. “But you mustn’t do this again. There’s an order to life and death, and we must never distort it to our advantage.”

The girl nodded. “I was only trying to…” Her voice faded before she finished her sentence.

“I know,” her father repeated. “I’m not angry.” He took both her hands in his. “Your motives were noble, but sometimes we must accept fate, regardless of how frustrating or upsetting we think it is.”

Bianca nodded again. Her expression was as sombre, and her eyes as fierce as her father’s.

The conte groaned on the floor.

The man got up, looked at the marchesa’s brother and at Agostino, then at the corpse of Salvatore’s mother-in-law, then shook his head.

“I think you’ve seen enough,” he said without malice. 

He snapped his fingers, and Agostino’s world went black.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

“Did you have to do that?” Maria asked her children’s father. “They’ll never believe they were poisoned by a gas leak in the radiator.

Hades leaned against the back of the sofa behind him. “Better than them believing the children are possessed by the devil, I should imagine.”

Maria huffed. 

She watched Nico and Bianca, playing with a set of dominoes on her parents’ sitting room carpet. 

They were so innocent. They were kind, and well-intended, but they were too young to understand so many things yet.

“Will it get worse?” She wondered. “Their… death thing?”

Hades gave her an honest look. “Yeah, it will. The older they get, though, the easier it’ll be to help them control that power.”

“So no more raising the dead at family gatherings?” 

He smiled. “No, I’ll make sure to pay attention the next time you host another relative’s wake or funeral.”

“Thank you,” she said. She crossed her arms. “My grandmother always thought they were somehow unholy, now she’ll haunt them forever.”

“Your grandmother was a piece of work,” Hades argued. “The possibility of her haunting all of you was always on the table, what’s another pebble to a mountain?”

Maria stared at him. “You’re joking, right?”

“Of course I am,” he waved a hand dismissively. 

“You didn’t tell me when my grandfather told Nico stories,” Maria reminded him. “Or when that aunt of mine was criticising my baking in the kitchen. I’d like a little heads-up the next time there’s wild spirits in my home.”

Hades shrugged. “What’s the fun in that? Let the children discover what they can do by themselves.”

“What if it’s dangerous?” She insisted. “What if they find a spirit, or ghost, or whatever that wants to hurt them?”

Hades took her hands in his. “Whatever they face that falls under the category of ‘afterlife’ is part of my domain. If they cannot handle it by themselves, I’ll always be there to help them.”

[thornnii]

⎯ ☆ my girlfriend

genre: fluff wordcount: 0.9k pairing: percy jackson x fem!reader tags: based on 'my girlfriend' by TV Girl, daughter of hypnos!reader (she/her), use of [reader], from percy's perspective, minor gods have cabins, established relationship, they're like 15 in this, phones/devices don't attract monsters (eg. noise cancelling headphones) summary: sometimes she just struggles to get out of bed. she can’t help it. notes: noticing how both my percy fics have similar titles, anyway happy international sleep day!

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the sun was bathing camp half blood in a golden light as campers began exiting their respective cabins and heading towards the dining pavilion for breakfast. stepping out of his own cabin, percy was immediately engulfed in the wave of campers, but he did his best to push through the current of others toward the cabins of the minor gods. it had become routine for him by this point; wake up, get sorted for the day, go to cabin 15, drag [reader] out of bed, go for breakfast. percy wondered whether clovis would be up yet or not. who knew with hypnos kids. percy knew that if he didn’t go check up on [reader] she’d willingly hibernate like a bear throughout the winter.

percy knocked on the door to cabin 15, his mother had raised him to always be a gentleman. the door was opened slowly, revealing a bleary-eyed clovis who, upon recognising percy, ushered him in so he could close the door once more. percy liked the hypnos cabin. it always smelt warm and the soft violins made everything feel serene. it was an ironic comparison to personalisation of the beds; messy sheets, a collection of cups, plates and cutlery, clothes strewn around, as well as their own belongings from home. almost every bedside cabinet had either a pair of headphones upon it or a pair of ear plugs.

instantly, percy went over to [reader]’s bed. she was still asleep. of course. it seemed incredulous to percy that anyone would be able to sleep through the morning conch, but here was living proof that it were possible. percy gently shook [reader]’s shoulder to try and ease her out of her slumber. she let out some incomprehensible mumble before promptly rolling over and hiding her face in her pillow.

“c’mon,” percy coaxed, “gotta get up and get breakfast”

[reader] spoke into her pillow once more but this time percy could catch bits of what she was saying, “be fine without… don’t wanna get up… didn’t sleep good..”

“you need breakfast.” percy stood his ground, “and the reason you didn’t sleep well is because you never go to sleep at a reasonable time, it’s a wonder the curfew harpies haven’t caught you yet.”

“I’m too smart for them.” [reader] rebutted, finally turning to face percy and squinting her eyes at him.

“yes you are, now up.” percy quickly pulled the duvet away causing [reader] to let out groans and mumbled protestations at his actions. “come on.” percy reiterated, holding out his hands for [reader] to take. she continued to squint her eyes and scowl at him, but took his hands anyway.

“wash up and then we can go to breakfast” percy proffered.

“can’t I just go like this?” [reader] contested, gesturing to her pyjamas of fluffy black pyjama trousers and make-shift pyjama top of a vintage graphic tee.

percy raised an eyebrow, “you know you’ll get into trouble with chiron if you do.”

“when is getting in trouble an issue for you?” [reader] raised an eyebrow.

“please.” percy begged.

“percy, you’re lucky that I even got out of bed, besides it’s not like I really have any activities to do today, so why do I have to get changed?”

percy sighed, trying to reason, “how about you just change into the shirt? at least for breakfast?”

“fine. turn around.” [reader] motioned with her finger.

it was coming close to the end of breakfast when percy and [reader] finally entered the dining pavilion. since it was basically empty, the two sat together at the hypnos table. thankfully there was still some food left, but not as much as percy would’ve liked, especially after sacrificing some to the gods.

“considering you went out of your way to drag me here, are you actually going to eat or not?” [reader] asked as percy seemingly just stared at his food.

“yeah, yeah,” percy shook his head as he broke out of his reverie, “was just thinking.”

“about?” [reader] prodded.

“just… how do you go a day on so little food? if I didn’t wake you up in the mornings you’d sleep straight through breakfast.”

“I nap and I don’t do anything strenuous. I’d rather rot in bed than go on a quest. I don’t need a lot of energy. besides ‘girl dinner’.”

“it’s breakfast.” percy pointed out.

“whatever, not the point.”

percy rolled his eyes at his girlfriend and went back to eating. it wasn’t until the two were finished with their food and basically the only ones left in the pavilion did he ask:

“so, what are you going to do today?”

[reader] shrugged her shoulders, “dunno, might go to the arts and crafts centre. don’t have to do anything strenuous there.”

“want me to join you?” percy asked, gathering their plates to take back to the kitchen.

“you don’t have to, I know it’s not your favourite place, you could go to the sword-fighting arena to practise if you want. I’m probably going to end up falling asleep anyway.”

“cool. I’ll be there to wake you up if chiron or mr d come by.”

a smile spread across [reader]’s face. she gave percy a light smack on the shoulder before looping her arm through his and dragging him off to the arts and crafts centre. she could already feel her eyelids drooping as she walked, anticipating the peace and quiet of the crafts centre that would let her nap until lunch.

© thornnii.tumblr.com 2024

[the-firebird69]

As we're saying they're putting a sheriff's office in and it's not big but they have a lot of deputies and they're fighting for their lives including Ken and he put our son into the UMass Worcester saw the military pull them out and said oh great and figured out something he told them not to do it and it was the others in the pseudo empire and they're mad at him but they're doing it too and got screwed by it Mac did it several times and got screwed. Now they're going to pay for the treatment and we're going to sue them and we're suing his mom suing her for what she owes him. She owes him money from Arnie's will she took and money she took from him personal money and it's about 5 million dollars out of one of his accounts now it's only like 20 grand when she was taking it from him and we are going to take it back and hand him the same bills to light her up. She wasn't taking that much when he was younger because the accident and skiing and started and he's right and she was doing the job and she can't do it anymore. This has it too biden is the empire and ken and she's alone. We suspect brain is in The matrix and in Australia. So he says I go to Utah and see your fat ass sue your fat ass probably see you and you would be trying to force the matrix open to get your brain which is probably inside a clone and she says I understand that and it's probably true and the other half is probably there separately oddly enough and their starting to get the stuff. So they're going to try and do that to get herself back together and really what a sad state of affairs with these two idiots joining the empire he says up yours buddy. To Ken they're a moose just sitting there in a fat little boy off the empire. He started laughing and he said second IV you got to watch out what's coming down there said yeah you're not even a clay pigeon it's more gross like Percy you got really mad and said it's true and see it happening and so what.

-so he's in trouble and I don't care he finally knows and that guy's ridiculous and no not you Zeus Ken is ridiculous he's pseudo empire has to say get away from me you're a pig off to slaughter though

Thor Freya

He has about 50 million empire ships and he has a large amount of big stuff it's probably 120th or 20% of the rest and it's a lot and it's heavily armed and he's going to have to fight these retards he's going to have a fun time like you the guy was just sitting there hiding it I couldn't wait for this moment this is too much what a piece of s*** it's like those pink light bulbs in killer clowns from space it's true too your bothering him all the time and you ain't going forwards with it it's making you go backwards Ken remember our discussion don't do it these people see it you're a moron ever see it and you're a moron

Hera

We published now

Thor Freya

They say they like what you say but he's starting to get something this kid is nobody really that assholes in the empire side his mom is vice President bothering the s*** out of him for who knows why and his grandpa is pseudo empire too what the hell is this Earth need I wake up call bja is trying to get to the empire that's terrific I guess I do too it's general grievous and count dooku we have our fingers in it but we're attacking sorta these people ridiculous they don't do anything so one stop shopping for the empire it's only after our stuff it says another night it's almost gone I hear that too I'm going to wake up with nothing you said and here we are with nothing they said it's just us five vehicle and we didn't do s*** with it and they didn't either cuz the little pussies it was only hear from me I'm going to do the same stupid s*** try and join them God this is awful probably a bunch of this stuff and it's not much and we fight ourselves it's actually true

Trump

What a mess and you're retarded no kidding Hera Zeus